There is an unusual rock formation found in the remote Mono Lake in California. It is called “tufa tower” with spires and knobs composed of calcium carbonate. It is formed due to an interaction between the freshwater springs and alkaline lake water. We wanted to see them and got there just before dark. There was just enough light for our hike out to the lake to see them. The moon added a cool feature to our viewing. There was a lot of bird activity around the lake. Because of the water resource issues in California more and more of these towers are viewable. The hike from the parking lot was not long and the time of day we visited made the temperature fantastic. We stayed about a half an hour.

The back side of Half Dome

The famous valley view with the girls (and Pooh)

A happy Daddy to be showing such cool things to the girls.

Checking out the waterfall

We gave ourselves two days to explore around Yosemite. It was just a taste of future trips. The first day we drove into the valley and looked up a lot. The girls could name the large rock formations and main waterfalls. They even spotted a fox that Mom and Dad missed. That night we camped at Hodgdon Meadow northwest of the valley. The campsite was busy and we had to hike our stuff in a little bit to get to our site. The trees around us gave us great shade and were huge. The next day we introduced the girls to even bigger trees.

The tree by our tent.

The next day we explored Mariposa Grove before we had to head on over the mountains. There is no way to explain how big the Giant Sequoias are. Even when looking at the grove of Sequoias it is hard to value the size until you can walk by or through one. We took a tram ride through the grove to get a better look at the trees. Common sense told us that if the girls had to hike the whole trail, they would miss the wonder because of being tired. We all enjoyed the ride and a short walk. Emily really picked up a lot of facts about the trees and loved being able to walk into one of them. We look forward to a return trip to this natural wonderland to explore further.

We had to work hard to hold this tree up. The middle of the tree is not necessary to bring food to the tree. One reason this tree can be so old and so big.

Just an attempt to show scale.

The trees are unbelievable!

Lombard Street, originally uploaded by Robby Edwards.

Emily visited San Francisco. (So did Mommy and Daddy.) She had fun seeing the sights around town. She liked watching the sea lions at Pier 39. She even got to ride the famous cable cars twice. She was very good for us on the plane flights, and got many compliments from our fellow passengers.

We drove down Lombard Street, then parked the car and I waited as Emily and Rachelle hiked partway up the street so I could take a photo of them.