Yosemite was so rad that it needed a whole special post of its own.

Mark & I had three days of adventure (ADVENTURE!!!) in Yosemite, starting with a wicked (wicked as in awesome and wicked as in WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO MY THIGHS YOU EVIL PIECE OF CRAP) hike to the top of Yosemite Falls and on to North Point, some bouldering action and another sweet hike up Nevada Falls, via Mist Trail, rattlesnakes and bears.

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Day one was gruelling, there's no other way to describe it. We drove into Yosemite Valley about 11am and didn't really have any idea what to expect. As you come into the valley, it's like you cross some invisible threshold and enter a world of pure, unedited awesomeness. Everywhere you look could be a postcard, but is usually infinitely cooler than what a photographer could convey. Please take that on board when looking at the pics! We decided to hit the Niagara Falls trail, after a quick Rotunda shot (we both agreed this was in the top five Rotundas we saw in Yosemite Valley):



And this is Yosemite Falls - the second largest waterfall in the world, no less, and our destination for the day was the top of it:



A couple of views along the way -

Half Dome in the distance:





The falls from halfway up:



Even this photo gives me vertigo - this is what it looks like from the top, leaning out over the rail (check out the rainbow):



Ever feel like you're on top of the world?



And the view from North Point:



After that epic hike (think it was somewhere between 6-8 hours but the thighs thought it was closer to 6-8 days) we needed an easier day, so we cruised into the valley and went looking for boulders. Mark found a problem and spent a while on it, I was happy to sit around, take photos and juggle pine cones (turns out they're spiky).





On the last day, we did the Nevada Falls trail and took the long way back, and it was probably an even better hike than Yosemite Falls. Unfortunately, the first part is called the mist trail - where you pretty much get hammered by a waterfall for 10-15 mins, meaning the camera couldn't come with us or it would not still be kicking today.

On the plus side, as we drove towards the valley that morning, we did see a BEAR!:



So that was Yosemite, someone once described it as God's Playground, and I think they were pretty close to correct. I can only think of one or two places I've ever been to that can compete with the beauty, the awe and the blow-your-mind wow factor that Yosemite has. And if that's not enough, there's bears. BEARS!