Independence Day 2016

I think Independence Day is my favorite holiday after Thanksgiving.  I love feeling pride for our wonderful country and I love fireworks!

Gil came up to spend the holiday and I took advantage of having a hiking buddy to explore some new places.

We left early Monday morning, Independence Day, and headed for Tuolumne.  We found a place to park near Lembert Dome with the goal of visiting Young Lakes.  Below is a map of our route.  We took the west trail going up and the east side of the loop back.

 Getting into the spirit of the holiday, Gil brought matching socks for us.  We got quite a few compliments on them until we both, at the same time, decided they weren't thick enough for hiking and changed into better pairs of socks.

Beautiful Tuolumne Meadow!

This was all new trail for me expect the first part, and the views were breathtaking!  I'm including a mix of photos from both Gil's and my cameras.  His is a bit more fancy and took the panoramas.

 Near the western-most lake of the Young Lakes chain, the trees opened up into this lovely meadow with a spectacular view of Ragged Peak.  July 4th and there's still snow.  Speaking of which, the temps for the day were in the 60s; clearest, bluest sky; white snow; green trees; silvery, sparkling granite... gorgeous!

 Young Lakes: elevation 9850.  You can just see the lake through the trees on the left side of the photo.

The western most lake and the stream that feeds it with Ragged Peak in the background.

 Soaking it in.

We had lunch on the lake, then found our way to the other two lakes.  The mosquitoes got progressively worse so we didn't stay at those very long.

 As we were hiking back down, the trees once again opened up into the most magical meadow I have yet to encounter in this park.  The openness, the scattered granite boulders, and the views of the peaks all around were simply spectacular.  I'm running out of adjectives to describe this hike!

 We made a quick stop at Dog Lake, which was a pleasant surprise for me.  Most lovely.

We hustled down quick, changed back into our patriotic socks, and drove down into Lee Vining and headed north into Bridgeport.  We were able to get the Eccles' family traditional root-beer floats and some dinner, then watched a spectacular fireworks display.  It was a grand day!

Happy Independence Day!