The drive is about 3.5 hours from the Bay Area. We really needed to relieve ourselves so we stopped at the Stanislaus vista point, which was the site of the rim fire. I was curious to see the damage.
My sister came to visit me for a few days earlier this month, and I decided to take her to Yosemite National Park! Thank God, the weather was absolutely perfect! The drive is about 3.5 hours from the Bay Area. We really needed to relieve ourselves so we stopped at the Stanislaus vista point, which was the site of the rim fire. I was curious to see the damage. Most trees have black trunks. And as we were driving, we noticed trees that were covered halfway in ashes. It was such a strange sight. Shortly after, we entered Yosemite! And because it happened to be Veterans Day, the entrance fee was waived! I love the imposing rocks in Yosemite: the colors, the texture, the grandeur. It's amazing to be surrounded by these beautiful sculptures. The sun was setting just as we arrived at Curry Village and this particular rock was glowing gold. Since we're sturdy people, I reserved a heated tent in Curry Village. I wasn't expecting much fall colors since most trees are evergreen in Yosemite, but Curry Village definitely felt like fall to me! And here is our tent! I was quite impressed overall. I had brought half of the blankets I owned in fear that it would be cold and dreadful. But the tent was warm and clean. There were two beds and they even provided clean sheets, blankets and towels! The bathroom was communal but nice. We were not roughin' it at all. We had an okay night's sleep and woke up ready to go hiking! Here is Tiana outside our tent. Our goal of the day was to hike to the top of Vernal Falls. And if we still feel up for it, we'd forge onward onto Nevada Falls. We had a really nice breakfast at Yosemite Lodge and then got off at Stop 16 to begin our hike! The weather was gorgeous. And here is the trailhead! Yup, Tiana was already planning to make it up to Nevada Falls. :) She's a sturdy lady. Unfortunately, it was nonstop uphill incline for about the first half hour. Within the first few minutes, both of us took off jackets, scarves and gloves. I was huffing and puffing and couldn't get enough air into my lungs and had to stop to catch my breath every 5 minutes or so. I had serious doubts about even making it to the top of Vernal Falls, not to mention Nevada Falls. But eventually, either the path leveled or my body just got used to it, we made it to the infamous stairs of the Mist Trail and got a full view of Vernal Falls! Of course, there is no mist now since there is so little water. The stairs felt like they were half of our body lengths and we'd climb a few and stop to rest. Which gave us plenty of excuses to take pictures with Vernal Falls. :) And eventually, we made it to the top! It's a pretty neat feeling to see a falls from the top even when there is little water. Overall, it took us about 1.5 hours to reach the top of Vernal. Not too shabby if I say so myself. We decided to rest a little and eat some snacks to recharge before heading onward to Nevada Falls. We started moving again in around 15 minutes. We crossed this bridge from the top of Vernal Falls and continued to Nevada Falls. Pretty soon we got to this sign that said we were only 1.3 miles to Nevada Falls! I seriously thought the hike to Nevada was much gentler. There were no super steep inclines or stairs half our body lengths. And within half an hour, we had this beautiful view of Nevada Falls! I paused for a moment to admire pretty fall leaves. And eventually we made it! The sun just happened to come out for a little bit, really bringing out the textures and colors of the rocks. It's so hard to capture the grandeur we felt. And here is the top of Nevada Falls! It took us about 1.5 hours from Vernal to Nevada making our total climb 3 hours so far. After staying at the falls for a bit, we decided to head back. We decided to take the John Muir Trail instead of going back the same way we came. Here we are some distance away from Nevada Falls. Can you see the falls in this picture? And in about 2 hours, we made it back to the bottom of the valley. Thank God, we had a really pleasant trip to Yosemite. :) It's such a luxury to have a nice national park within driving distance. Hope to come back soon!
0 Comments
Now that I have instagram, I can share photos of life happenings real time. It seems a bit strange now to be putting a post together of something that I've already sort of shared, but well...some behind the scenes won't hurt anybody. Plus, I like going back to previous blog posts sometimes. So it's not surprise to anyone that I love anything by Rifle Paper Company. In fact, I may or may not have bought an iphone 5 just so I can get this cover. I'm just so smitten with this cover. I love how it fits snugly and doesn't add weight. And the colors are just stunning. Worth. every. penny. Anyway, so I was looking for a new watercolor idea when I ran into this image on the Rifle Paper Co website and thought it would make a great watercolor. I first sketched it out on regular paper just to see if I could even imitate it. It looked pretty good, if I say so myself, so I sketched it on watercolor paper. You'll have to do a comparision to see this, but I did change / move some features around because I was being a little sloppy with the proportions and sometimes my white spaces are bigger than theirs. So instead of erasing and starting over, I decided to add my own features. :D Sketching actually went surprisingly fast. After sketching was mixing colors, which was the most time consuming. Having no color theory background, I basically mixed on gut feel so it took me longer to finally arrive at the colors I was aiming for. Then it was just a matter of putting the color on paper, which I found fast and straightforward. And Ta-da! Here is the final result! And I hung it in our office collage and smile at it whenever I sit down on my chair. I have to say, I was happily surprised by the final result. I may have shed a figurative tear over it. There is something about doing something you thought you couldn't do. It's a great feeling.
|
Archives
March 2015
Categories
All
Current ProjectReupholstering & Tufting 2 Benches |