Yosemite National Park- Day 1

As we drove and walked through Yosemite National Park, I tried to decide what words I would use to sum up the park and what my impressions of it are.  That's very difficult to do when you have a limited vocabulary!   I guess if I had to use one word, it would be "huge".  Not "vast" like Big Bend, because in Big Bend there are no trees to block the "vastness".  Here, there are trees, huge ones, and  huge rocks, and views, huge views, everywhere you look. There really aren't words that convey the feeling I got.  There was a feeling of excitement of course, of feeling insignificant, but also the feeling that there have been  so many people  here exploring this wilderness, and I couldn't wait to be one of them, and how great it is that this place is being preserved so that we can all enjoy it.
    The RV Park we are staying in is about an hour and a half from the visitors center. On the way in, that was no problem,  I was captivated by the views anyway.  On the way home, at 8 pm though,  it got old since I was so tired.  Plus we then had to stop to go food shopping and eat dinner.  It was one long day.
      There were two hikes we were particularly  interested in doing, but we decided to do the shortest of the two on our first day.  We hiked the Mist Trail (appropriately named) up past Vernal Falls to Nevada Falls, then back down Muir Trail, for a total of about 7 miles and 1900 ft elevation gain.  Luckily the views were spectacular and the photo opportunities many, since we had to stop frequently to catch our breath along the way. The plus side to the fact that we can't hike Half Dome, due to snow, is that the waterfalls-and there are lots of them- are positively gushing with water. As we were hiking, whether we could see a waterfall or not, we could always hear one.  It was never quiet in the forest.  There were also lots of people, but not to the point where it felt overcrowded.
All in all it was a great, but tiring, first day in Yosemite.  This morning I am doing laundry, how fun.  This afternoon we are leaving this park for 2 nights, and meeting Kevin, Suzy, Kirk and Karen at a Federal campground to spend the weekend.  We'll come back to this campground on Sunday.