See ya' later Texas.

Days 1 and 2

By: J. Del Valle
jcd165@txstate.edu

The early bird gets the worm.

Woke up at 4 a.m.and arrived to Austin airport at 5:30 a.m. and realized I left my debit card in San Antonio. D'oh!

I learned that booking a flight to leave at 6 a.m. in Austin isn't the best time, because ATX airport is a mad house. Audrey and I were a bit nervous waiting in security checkpoint line because all three lanes were overflowing of people waiting to get pass security and we only had 20 minutes till our flight was going to start boarding. But good news we made it with five minutes till our flight started scanning tickets.

Arriving in the 559 (Fresno, California) 

Finally landed at 9:16 a.m.-let’s fast forward to 2.5 hours later and we finally made it to Yosemite National Park. My first impression of Yosemite Falls was this place is magical. Is this real life? I was in awe for a few moments.

Yosemite Falls by: J. Del Valle 

Once we arrived to Half Dome Village and waiting for the keys to our cabins we couldn’t help but take in the beautiful views that was surrounding us. Finally settled in our cabins our professors let us explore the grounds; my first route was walking through The Meadows by our camp site and couldn’t believe that I was finally at Yosemite National Park.

First night at Half Dome Village

After having my first experience in a community shower house I ended up in a stall where the hot water wasn’t running and took the coldest shower I have ever taken-my luck right-and the temperature dropped to 40 degrees that night. So, wet hair and cold night didn’t go well in the cabin I woke up at 3 a.m. to put a beanie on. But gladly to say I survived my first night camping our group woke up at 7 a.m. got dressed and headed to dining hall to get breakfast. 

First group activity: Nature hike with Kaleb from Yosemite Conservancy

Kaleb from Yosemite Conservancy
talking among the group by: J. Del Valle 

Our second day at Yosemite started off with a morning hike with Kaleb who is a season park ranger for National Park Service and volunteer for Yosemite Conservancy. He was kind enough to teach us some of Yosemite beautiful plants and trees. Some of the trails we hiked was John Muir trail, which is one of the popular trails at Yosemite. After our hike was able to grab lunch with the group and started our first day of assignments with our assigned partners. Kamryn and I walked to Yosemite Village which is mile away from our camp site, got to explore it by going to the wilderness center to get footage for our documentary. It started to rain for a brief moment and cleared up after 10 minutes. My first problem arose, while recording a interview for Kamryn my iPhone storage maxed out. So, I spend the rest of the day deleting unnecessary memory to free up space. Hopefully tomorrow goes smoother than today.