Yosemite: Death to Heaven

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Yosemite... Where do I even start?



In the span of the two days we spent in this park- during this trip, I experience by far the worst moment, and best moment of my life. It started with the worst:



We arrived, and decided to go on a small hike. The man at the entrance booth told us to stroll around these big tree's- about a 2 mile hike. So we park the car, get out and start walking around. 2 Miles isn't that far right?



I don’t know where we went wrong but somehow, we ended up on a trail trying to find a “Fallen Tunnel Tree”. In my mind, I was thinking a giant tree fell, and it was in the path, so they hollowed out the tree, making it a tunnel. Sounds pretty damn cool right? So were walking up this hill, its cold out, I’m in brand new boots, and we have no water. Each sign we reach, says the tunnel is a different distance further- sometimes the distance gets smaller, sometimes it gets longer. We hiked about 3 miles up hill, and realise, the signange is wrong, and we are lost. There was another sign for some museam, which was supposed to be a half of a mile further. I was extremely thirsty, so we moved forward, thinking the museam would have water fountains. Another mile up hill, and we find the museam, which is closed, and all the water is turned off. I was stressed out at this point, so my husband says we should turn around. BUT WERE SO CLOSE! I was too determined not to waste all this way to not see the final product, so we hiked another mile and a half up, to finally reach the GLORIOUS TUNNEL? No joke, the falling tree tunnel, is in fact, a tree, that had a tunnel through the base, that had fallen over. It was literally nothing but a fallen tree, with nothing to see. At this point, it started to rain, making me even more thirsty, and its getting dark. 5.5 miles back down- I didn’t think I could do it- and I wasn’t even sure we could find our way back.



Freaking out a bit, I started jogging down the paths, not checking signs, just following paths. I figured they had to lead to the bottom eventually. Somehow, we managed to get down in 3.5 miles (we must have taken the zig zagging horse paths). My feet are bleeding from the new boots, were wet from the rain, but were so happy to find our car and get WATER!



After chugging large masses of water, we leave the area of the park, stop at the ticket booth, and ask the man how to get to our hotel. I will never, ever forget his response. “Oh that hotel! It’s right around the corner, but that road is closed, so you would have to drive all the way around the park to get to it, taking about… ummm… 4 hours”. I started crying. My husband and I decide to forgo the 120 we spent on the hotel, cancel the reserveration, and find a new place to stay.



While leaving the park, we run into a really fancy hotel. I went up to the counter, explained my situation, and the lady nodds her head, and says, “I’m so sorry, I’ve heard about the signage being wrong before, let me see if we can get you a discounted room”. She writes on a piece of paper “$90” and asks if that’s ok. I started crying, thanked her for her generousity, and paid for the room. After paying, someone came around the corner with bandages for me, and flip flops, offering to help me fix up my feet. Then they lead us to the dining area, and we ordered sandwiches, and my hsuband ordered a beer. The server brought us out some free fruit, and free soup, in order to make up for the terrible signage and confusion in the park. The hotel wasn’t even owned by the park, they were just that generous.



Sadly, I cannot remember the name of the hotel, or even where it was. If I did, I would have written some really nice reviews, and sent them a thank you card.



The next day, was when I expereinced the best moment of my life. We were headed out of the park, and stopped at the Yosemite Valley Tunnel Lookout. It had rained all night, so there was no one around. The rain also caused the clouds to set in the valley. The scene was so quiet, beatutiful, it felt like a dream. It almost felt like we were floating. We took some pictures, lingered in each others arms, and enjoyed it for over an hour.



When I posted the pictures of that moment, people accused us of having a green screen- a fake picture with a backdrop. I promised myself we would go back someday, and we did, but the clouds setting that way, and the lack of a croud, is so unbelivebly rare, that I don’t think we will ever get to have that experience a second time. It will forever be my favorite moment of my life.

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