Arriving at Yosemite, Greeted with a Tour

Arriving at Yosemite, Greeted with a Tour

By Gabriella Molina
gcm37@txstate.edu

Steps Taken Arrival Day: 11, 718
Steps Taken Day 2: 18,376

Arriving in Yosemite 

Getting to Yosemite was quite the journey. A sleepy one, I might add. It began with a 5 a.m. arrival at the Austin airport. Lack of planning of my end led to an unexpected additional carry-on check. A water bottle, a bottle of shampoo, and my holy grail hair serum were the culprit items that exceeded the allowed quantity of 3.4 ounces of liquid in a carry-on bag. Once on the plane, the only goal in my mind was to get a nap in, which happened. After waking up in Phoenix, me and the rest of the group quickly boarded on to another plane that would take us to Fresno. Once on that plane, I almost immediately settled back into sleep. Finally in Fresno, we loaded up the vans and made way for Yosemite. On our way there, we stopped for a meal at 1850 Restaurant and Brewery in Mariposa, CA. It was a fun "Welcome Lunch" as our professor called it, and we all got the chance to get to know each other a little better before finally getting to Yosemite.

After arriving in Yosemite, the rest of the day was mostly just getting to know the area that we were going to be staying in. I teamed up with my cabin-mate Bailey, and we took to walk around Half Dome Village. We got a chance to look at our good options there at Half Dome Village and once it got dark, we headed back to our cabin for shower-time and then finally, bedtime.

Kaleb Shows us Around Yosemite National Park 

Kaleb talking about the Yosemite Conservancy
Photo by Gabriella Molina

A nice beautiful Monday morning was spent with a Yosemite Conservancy Interpretist named Kaleb Goff. We began our journey by hearing a little bit about what the Conservancy here at Yosemite is all about. The main goal of the Conservancy, as Kaleb put it is to get people to care about Yosemite and wanting to protect it. He explained how the Conservancy takes on a conservationist perspective. This means that the Conservancy wants people to be apart of the park and grow an attachment to this place so that Yosemite can be around forever.

Ponderosa Pine Bark
Photo by Gabriella Molina

We walked all over the park learning about the Ponderosa Pine, different trails, plants, wildlife and many other things that are all a part of the park here. Turns out Yosemite was a lot bigger than I would have thought! Everything that I learned about the park from Kaleb today showed me just how much this place needs to be taken care of by any and all visitors that come here. Kaleb, thanks for everything. Your mission has been accomplished!