Day 5: Lower Yosemite Falls

 The Water is a Rush

By: Bailey Brown
Bmb153@txstate.edu

Steps Traveled: 15, 387

Fun Fact: When the water hits you from Yosemite Falls, all of your troubles go away.

Lower Yosemite Falls Photo By: Bailey Brown

Lower Yosemite Falls

As we prepared for the end of our Yosemite journey, there was a small hike that needed to be traveled. Professor James was walking with me as we headed for Yosemite Falls. We joked and laughed and lived in the moment. Once we reached the bottom of the falls we climbed the rocks and let the water hit us. It was freeing, uplifting, and it was magical. The people around us were so full of joy, little kids laughing and giggling as they played in the mist. Their was an elderly couple that stood from afar and they had such a big smile on their face just looking up at the falls.










The End is Near 

The hike to Lower Falls was my favorite part of this trip. Finally feeling the rush of water hit me and feeling like everything I did to get there was worth it. Yosemite is a place that people of all ages need to visit. It is wondrous, magical, and healing. It humbles you as you come back home to appreciate the trees in your backyard, the birds among them, and the small flowers below them. This place shouldn't make you believe the only beauty lies there, it is everywhere, you just have to notice it.

Day 4: Nature Journaling

Water Color the Small Things

By: Bailey Brown
Bmb153@txstate.edu

Steps Traveled: 10, 918

Pictures Painted: 2

Fun Fact: The beauty of Yosemite National Park in the beginning was captured through paintings and drawings, nature journaling is a way to keep that process alive.

Photos by: Bailey Brown

The Small Makes the Big Look Big

Leading up to the nature journaling class, it was expected we would be writing and documenting what we were to see in nature. However, it was the exact opposite, we were going to draw. Our art center coordinator, Ms. Lora Spielman, started the class with asking us to find a small leaf or plant to draw. Then she wanted us to write questions or comments about what we were drawing. The smallest plant around looked like a fuzzy pillow on top of a skinny green rod. My drawing looked somewhat similar and it was fun to do.

Photos by: Bailey Brown

Enjoying  the Peace and Quiet

Following along, Ms. Speilman asked us to find a piece of bark to draw and again do the same process. Searching for the perfect peice, there lied a piece of bark that had a tiny orange flower under a corner of the chunk of bark. It was a bright orange and changed all the contrasting colors in the bark. After our sketches were finished we went to water color them. Everyone seemed to be out of their comfort zone and enjoyed the coloring. It was quiet and peaceful, the only noise around was the silence.

Day 3: Visiting Mariposa Grove

Mariposas are in the Grove

By: Bailey Brown
Bmb153@txstate.edu

Steps Traveled: 11, 276

Fun Fact: The Grizzly Giant Sequoia Tree lives in Mariposa Grove. It is about 1900-2400 years old and is 209 feet tall. It is the 25th largest tree in the world.

The Grizzly Giant Photo by: Bailey Brown

The Drive to Mariposa Grove

Day 3 of our trip started with the best way to start the day. We were off to see some of the tallest trees in the world. We piled in the van and saw so many trees on the way there. The shuttle then dropped us off at the grove and we walked in. It was instantly beautiful. The smell of the trees, flowers, and the grass was so fresh and almost renewing. As we walked along there were bundles of honeysuckle at the base of the the trees. They were shiny and white and reminded me of my backyard as a child.

The Trees Never Stop Growing

As we walked along the trail trying to appreciate the giant trees there came a nice breeze. It was so hot yet the shade from each tree was comforting. There were many trees that had been cut down, even one that had been graffitied. Those trees were the ones that stuck with me. It hurt my heart to see so many fallen, and so many people surrounding them to get their picture taken. It was a graveyard as much as it was a grove. The butterflies flew around the base of the trees and they were larger than life. They seemed to be a symbol of new life for the fallen trees.

Travelogue day 5

By Samuel Turner
sbt33@txstate.edu

Day 5

Photo By Samuel Turner

Wow. Just wow. The views from Glacier Point were utterly breathtaking. Dale, Audrey, Jake and I woke up around 7 a.m. in order to make the hour drive up to Glacier Point for the morning. I can say without a doubt in my mind that the effort and time it took to get there was completely worth it. From the point you can see the entire valley. You get to see a past the granite walls that you are confined by in the valley. You get to see the expansive Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. It feels as though you truly can see any and everything from there. I was left totally speechless. Going to Glacier point was the perfect activity to do on our last day in Yosemite. It gave us such a unique and incredible perspective of the park and truly revealed how massive and how much beauty is stored in the Yosemite Valley. It has been a great trip in which countless memories were created and life-long friendships were formed.

Travelogue day 4

By Samuel Turner
sbt33@txstate.edu

Day 4

Photo By Samuel Turner

Today was a lot slower paced than the previous days of the trip. The exhaustion of the week had finally set in and I just spent most of the day sitting around and soaking in the incredible views of the valley. While I was eating a snack and enjoying the views, a gorgeous bird with black feathers on its back and red feathers on its chest landed at my feet and sat there with me for a few minutes. Around mid-day several of the Study in America students took a nature journaling class led by Lora Spielman from the Yosemite Conservancy. In the class we learned to slow down every once in a while and notice the minuscule details and intricacies of all the wildlife we were surrounded by. As a part of the class we sketched some of the plants we noticed and filled them in with water colors and notes about what we observed. Overall, I got the rest that I desperately needed in order to enjoy our last day in the park.

Travelogue Day 3

By Samuel Turner
sbt33@txstate.edu

Day 3

Photo by Samuel Turner

This morning Audrey, Mike, Jaydee and I woke up at 5 a.m. to go and look for some bears in the meadow by our campsite. Unfortunately all we ended up seeing were a few deer and a field mouse. We stayed out in the meadow for a few hours to see the sunrise in the valley. At around 7:30 a.m. we met up with the rest of the Study in America group to make the hour and a half drive up to Mariposa Grove, the home of the Sequoia trees. These trees seemed to be something straight out of a fairytale due to their unimaginable height. The highlight of the grove was the massive tree fittingly named "Grizzly Giant". Its branches were as big as some of the other trees in the area. After the grove Audrey and I spent the rest of the day in Yosemite Village gathering interviews from the parks sign-language interpreter and a doctor. All in all it was a very eventful and busy day.

Travelogue Day 1 & 2

By Samuel Turner
sbt33@txstate.edu

Day 1

Today we traveled over 1400 miles from San Marcos, TX to Yosemite, CA. The first flight left Austin, TX around 6:20 a.m. central time and landed in Phoenix, AZ around 6:40 a.m. PST. Our second flight took off around 7:20 a.m. and landed in Fresno, CA at 9:30 a.m.. From Fresno, we drove to Mariposa, CA for lunch, and went from Mariposa to Yosemite. The total drive time from the airport was about two and a half hours. Once we got to the park we had a little bit of time to explore before calling it a night.

Day 2

Photo By Samuel Turner

The second day started off with a four hour guided nature walk with Kaleb Goff, a naturalist from the Yosemite Conservancy. Goff gave us all insight into things in the park most people wouldn't know or notice, like how the Staircase Falls only appear for a short time in the spring, or how the Ponderosa Pine Trees have a symbiotic relationship with a pine beetle. After the walk I got to interview Goff about climate change/the climate crisis for the mobile storytelling course and learned so much. The rest of the day was spent exploring Yosemite Village and the visitor center there.

Day 5

A strenuous hike and the last night in the park

Me, Tony, Kaylee and Allison posing at the halfway point on upper Yosemite falls trailh

By Ashley Bowerman
atb63@txstate.edu

Miles Traveled (on the hike): 1.4

Elevation: approximately 1,500 feet

Temperature: 87 degrees

Hiking tip: You should always bring more than enough water with you on a hike, especially if you decide to hike upper Yosemite falls

It was the last early morning in the park and a group of us decided to go on one last hike before we had to head back home. We had planned to hike lower Yosemite falls, but that quickly changed to upper Yosemite falls when we got off the shuttle bus. Why? I think we were feeling a bit confident, maybe a little too confident.

Upper Yosemite falls hike 
The trail started off flat and not intimidating at all. That was until we got to the mile and a half, vertical elevation, switch-back trail that seemed to come out of nowhere. With quite a bit of hesitation, we pushed up the mountain. Despite the unpreparedness of hiking such a tough trail, we never seemed to give up. We stuck together, took our time, and faced our fears. A few other hikers on the trail had promised us that there would be a pretty view of the valley if we kept trecking a mile and a half up the trail. Eventually, we made it halfway and boy was it worth it. The view of the valley from that high was spectacular. The hike back down the trail reminded us how far we had actually just hiked! This hike was a memory of the trip that I will cherish the most.

After the hike, a few of us headed to Yosemite Village to get some more interviews for our stories and take advantage of the Wi-Fi. This would be our last day in the park so anything else we needed to complete our stories we had to get today!

Family dinner
At 5:00 p.m. we all met at Degnan's Loft in Yosemite Village to have our end of the trip dinner. We had loads of pizza and even some complimentary orders of nachos and salsa after a complication with our order. We all talked about memories on the trip, told funny stories, and laughed with one another. It was amazing how close the group had become after spending only one week together. I can easily say the people I met on the trip have a special place in my heart and we will continue to hang out after we leave the park. 

John Muir Play 
After dinner, we headed over to the Yosemite Theatre to enjoy stories told by a John Muir impersonator. Anyone in the audience was open to ask him questions and he would respond with stories about what John Muir experienced as a mountaineer and father of National Parks. It was nice to be able to sit down after a meal together and learn more about the man who we can credit for allowing us to enjoy Yosemite's beauty.

At the end of the night, a bunch of us met up in one cabin and sat around and talked. We laughed so hard that most of us had tears falling from our eyes. I think most of the laughing came from delusion, but none the less, we bonded over embarrassing stories and memories from the trip. After a long day in the park, I sat in bed thinking about how much we had seen, heard, and experienced at Yosemite. I could not believe our time at the park was already over, but I knew that we would take home friendships, hard work, and memories that we will remember for a lifetime. Thank you Yosemite for making my senior year memorable and bringing me closer with nature. I will be back, and next time finish all of the upper Yosemite falls trail!