Mariposa Grove

After the wedding was over, the next-day's party cleaned up, the hangover nursed, and the family gone, Mandy and I had the chance to explore some of the rest of Yosemite. I really wanted to see the giant sequoias in Mariposa Grove. We loaded up the snowshoes and put tire chains on the car for the impending snowstorm and hiked the two miles to the trees. The wonderful side effect of the poor weather and difficult access was that we literally had the entire forest to ourselves. It was quite beautiful being among these giant old trees, the forest quite with the snow on the forest floor, and a light snow falling all around.

Fortunately the snow had been packed down by other previous visitors and we didn't need the snowshoes. This was a blessing since I had never used snowshoes and would have probably been a horrible mess tripping all over myself.