Day 65 to 68: "Oh, cool!" Snap, Snap, Snap ...

(Mile 930 to 942.5, Tuolumne Campground, & three zeros = 12.5 miles)

Morning meadows as we entered Yosemite. 13 miles before noon that morning!

 That was me and Gumby playing tourists for three full days in Yosemite.  We.  Loved.  It.

A mounted ranger. I was so in awe of him. Now THAT is rangering.

 Many of our fellow hikers did not want to be at Yosemite during the 4th of July holiday.  Yosemite can be a busy place any old summer day, but on our nation's holiday, the busiest day of the summer season in parks' land?  You can imagine the PCT thru-hiker, having lived in the wild for the past two months, cringing at the idea of being packed like sardines on a bus with filled holiday tourists.  Not me and Gumby.  We fetched our showers, did our laundry, put on the men's deodorant I scored from the hiker box, grabbed our cameras and our Ziploc wallets, and we were ready to go.

Dinner with a sunset on Half Dome. Welcome to Yosemite!

 A ranger-friend of mine, Damon, met us at Tuolumne Meadows.  We camped there and then toured in his rental car to "the Valley" where we cruised loops on the free shuttle.  We visited a sequoia grove where we snapped classic photos next to the big tree, inside the one cut wide enough for a car (now dead), on the tree cookie replica doing handstands, and inside the cave of a giant dead sequoia resting on its side.  We visited Lower Yosemite Falls (snap, snap, snap), had a picnic beneath El Capitan while watching climbers (snap, snap, snap), watched the sunset at Glacier Point (snap, snap, snap), cooked dinner with a view of the sunset on Half Dome and the moonrise over the adjacent ridge (snap, snap, snap), walked the edges of Taft Point (snap, snap, snap), and hiked to the top of Vernal Falls (snap, snap, snap).

Admiring from the edge at Taft Point.

 But we didn't just take photos.  No, we ate like tourists, too.  Camp Curry had amazing pizza -- we stopped there twice.  We had afternoon hops pops and chased them down with iced coffees.  We had hard-serve ice cream for dessert.  We ate chips and drank pop whenever we wanted.  And we shopped like tourists.  Well, kind of.  Hikers refuse to carry much.  But we bought postcards and stickers and little gifts to send home.  We visited the visitor centers, and I saw Sheldon!  The Sheldon.  Ranger Sheldon.  Anyone who loves parks and poured over the Ken Burns films knows who I am talking about.  Yellowstone, winter buffaloes Sheldon.  Turns out he works at Yosemite.  I didn't talk too him (too shy), but I did see him rangering in the visitor center.  We had a celebrity sighting!  Oh, and another -- one of the women from the hiking club I'm a part of in Salem found us at Curry.  Sue Nelson had just climbed El Capitan!

The sunset from Glacier Point. Our own 4th of July fireworks.

 No, we did not mind the crowds one bit.  We have wilderness experiences every single day.  Being around people, riding in vehicles, and having so many amenities available was refreshing.  And, I have to say, I loved seeing so many people from around the world enjoying our nation's parks.  Sure, there are too many and the park takes quite a beating ... but seeing so many visitors all lined up for a spectacular sunset at Glacier Point was truly moving.  All of those people, all there for a simple sunset.  No technology, no games, no prizes, no food, no shops, no creature comforts.  Just a walkway and rocks and sun.  Their smiling faces and excited voices were enough to warm any ranger's heart, even a ranger on the busiest day of the year exhausted from finding lost children, enforcing dogs on leash, emptying dozens of garbage cans, and cleaning up far too much tp from the restroom floors would find a smile coming to his/her face upon such a scene.  It was wonderful.

People from all over the world watching a sunset together. Beautiful.

 We spent the day of our mini-vacation right where we spent most of the first -- on the picnic tables in front of the Tuolumne Meadows General Store.  PCT hikers rotate through those tables, and we just hung out, ate, and attended to personal business (sewing, calling home, writing postcards, sending packages, charging electronics, etc.)  This, too, was wonderful.  By the morning of our 69th day, we were relaxed, rested, and ready to return to trail life.  Playing tourist is great, but you don't get to see the really good stuff!

Handstands for interpretive exhibits!

Look, Mom!  I'm right side up!

Handstands for the tree tunnels we no longer make!

Damon, Gumby, and I joined the 4 to 10 year olds in caving through this fallen sequoia.  

El Capitan!

Joining all of the other tourists at the base of Lower Yosemite Falls. I tried
 not to panic about all of the potential injuries climbing on those rocks could cause.

Rainbow at Vernal Falls.

Gumby at the top of the falls.

Laying down with the falls.