Stepping (and descending) into History

Over the weekend we went with my grandma and grandpa (who are in town visiting) to Colombia State Park and then to Moaning Caverns... It was nice to spontaneously get out of town, generally if I am going somewhere I plan it to death until it's no longer any fun.  We just picked up, brought some sandwiches, and went basically!

The park that we went to was an old town that was booming during the Gold Rush.  There are quite a few of these towns near us, where gold drew people from across the country and across the seas and inspired them to seek their wealth from California.

Here are some of our pics...

 

And here are the photos from Moaning Caverns.  I was excited to see this... and when my grandma and grandpa didn't want to go in (partly because of the long hike down and then back up, but mostly because they creep my grandma out) I didn't really worry too much about it affecting me.  I was wrong, by the time we climbed to the bottom (very tall cave, but not big horizontally), my legs and arms were shaking violently.  The old staircase also gave me the creeps, which I have a photo of below...

Regardless, I'm still glad I saw them despite having shaky legs and hands for hours afterwards...

It probably didn't help though that they turned the lights off for us to experience how dark it gets in there... oh and this is after they told us about the human remains (over 100 of them) found in this cave.

 

The above photo is interesting because this was actually formed in China from the Yangtze River, then purchased many years ago and placed in this cave (sort of random really, if you ask me).  But it still forms here in this cave...

  

To give perspective on how large this cave was, the above stalagmite is around 23 feet tall...

 

The tour guide must have taken twenty of these pictures in an attempt to get a clear one... I'm guessing the light around me is from my ghostly complexion LOL

 

Clearing out the Cobwebs...

Wow, it's pretty dusty in here!!

Sorry for my lack of posting, school has been crazy busy these last few weeks (honestly, the whole semester). I would say I'd never take that many classes at once again... but I'm sure I eventually will have to again!

I thought I'd share some of my pictures from Yosemite. I went on a class field trip there a couple of weeks ago... it was incredible. It was just beautiful beyond description. I did go last year, but by that time most of the waterfalls had stopped running... they really do make a difference!

Oh, and by the way, I just about cried with excitement when I found out Blogger updated the picture uploading.  True, you still can only upload basically one at a time (or at least input after they are all uploaded), but baby steps. Baby steps.

Still, I got a little photo happy, I can't help it, I just love our parks (and especially Yosemite) so much...

 

Also, we were in a documentary! Very exciting, though quite uncomfortable.  They wanted us to be very natural throughout it, and it's hard not to stop talking when a camera is clearly recording everything. 

 

Magical, at a certain time of day, the light hits this waterfall just right, and it climbs from the bottom, slowly up to the top.  I was so fortunate to see this!

 

Making dinner in the dark...

Hike up to Vernal Falls (which was closed at the last 300 ft... grrrr)

 

Cute Owlie at the museum

 

If anyone knows what these flowers are... I would love to know!

 

Galen Clark, first protector of Yosemite... he made this headstone and had six (five remaining) Sequoias planted around his grave... so now he is in the trees.  I thought that was very poetic.

 

Yosemite Falls

 

Native American grinding rock...

 

Waterfall along our hike around Hetch Hetchy

Below, the beautiful Hetch Hetchy...