Yosemite National Park - Third Time's a Charm
Rhegan Lundborg
Here we go again…
One day (next year), I’ll venture to other national parks, but I had to share the place I love with the man I love.
We celebrated our year anniversary in the mountains of Yosemite National Park. Watching him fall in love with the place that gives my soul peace brought me to tears. There’s just no beauty like Yosemite.
Our first date wasn’t the only thing celebrated. I broke my ankle the day after we met, so I also celebrated one year since my ankle was destroyed. This is the most I’ve hiked and walked in a year.
Obviously, due to the ankle break and recovery, this trip didn’t have as much hiking as the previous trips, but it was still just as stunning and sharing it with the man I love meant the world to me.
Enjoy the photos.
Goes to Yosemite and takes photos of wildflowers and teeny, tiny mushrooms
Yosemite National Park is on Ahwahneechee land - the tribes of Miwuk and Mono Paiute indigenous peoples
We got into camp on Thursday - Hodgdon Meadows, one of the only camps open for 2023 outside of the Valley. It was quite a beautiful campground. After dinner, we went to bed in my little two-person tent, our home for the week.
On our first full day in Yosemite, we walked/hiked nearly 10 miles in the Valley around Mirror Lake and over to Lower Yosemite Falls. It was a hot day in the Valley, but the falls allowed us a chance to relax before a lunch of tinned fish and an hour drive back to camp. I braided our hair - a Dutch braid for me and a French braid for him - ate our dehydrated dinners and were in bed by the time the sun went down.
Saturday was our ass-kicking hike to the Lower Cathedral Lake. I have visited both lakes before and the lower one is always my favorite. The mosquitos were insane this year with the amount of snow/snow melt in the mountains. We sat at the lake and enjoyed some trail mix before making our way back down the mountain. I won’t lie, this was a challenge for me. My ankle hurt like no other when we got back to the trailhead and I realized I had a blister on my heel about the size of a silver dollar. We were wiped, but a tinned fish meal in our car was just what we needed to get a little boost in energy as we headed back to our camp.
Sunday, we opted to head to the other side of the Valley to visit the awe-inspiring Glacier Point. A 2-hour drive from camp, the views didn’t disappoint. As my love stood on his tippy toes to get photos of the Valley, I swore and held the fear of heights for the both of us.
Monday, it was time to pack up and head into Fresno for the night. We ate, slept, and enjoyed each other in the comfort of a hotel bed before our trip back home early Tuesday morning.
I am so fortunate to have this man in my life and feel so full of love and happiness for our trip to celebrate one year together.
