It’s Sunday, so that means Jason and I will be exploring Kings Canyon National Park. We will be fully immersed in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which I’m sure I’m loving 
As I prepared for this recap series, I realized that I never wrote a post for our final day in Yosemite last June 
Bad Blogger! Bad! The funny thing is that Day 5 probably made the greatest impact on me personally. And it was our drive into the mountains on Day 5 that led to this current trip.
Here’s hoping I do that day justice…
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Day 5 – June 9, 2010
After our big hike to Vernal and Nevada Falls, we decided that our final day would be best spent sitting as much as possible. So, we headed for the high country along the Tioga Road.
Jason was super excited to see a marmot.
We stopped at Olmstead Point with yet another different view of Half Dome.
Our next stop along was Tenaya Lake. It was still a little iced over.
We passed by the Tuolumne Meadows area that was still slightly snow-covered and shut-down (imagine that). Since we got into the park on a free weekend, we weren’t driving out of the park. This was as far as we went. Look at that snow!
Clearly, they weren’t kidding.
Because I was obsessed with it, we made another stop at Tenaya Lake.
The sky was just SO blue.
Yosemite Creek
For some reason, I found these signs to be really funny.
Other signs weren’t very funny. These signs indicated spots where bears had been hit. “Red Bear, Dead Bear.” Not funny.
“Watch for Rocks” = Funny. Rocks falling on truck = Not so funny.
Back in the Valley, we stopped at Fern Spring.
And at El Capitan.
We turned into the Valley Chapel parking lot for more than just church business…
We were scoping out the neighboring meadow for bears. We got lucky!
After dinner, we headed out to get some evening shots of Half Dome. As the sun sets, it’s like the face of Half Dome glows. We got there rather early, so we went bear “hunting” again.
Bear #3
And Bear #4
As we peeled ourselves away from bear watching, we realized we were missing our Half Dome photo op.
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I was so sad for that trip to be over. I teared up so many times as we left the park, took off from the airport, arrived back in Wisconsin. However, in those final moments with Yosemite Valley, I vowed to return. And I kept that promise to myself.
I can’t wait to share the latest chapter of my travels with you!
