Day 2 was our first full day. Our hiking destination was near Little Devil’s Post Pile. We left Tuolumne Meadows camp ground and headed out toward Lembert Dome. Soon after the start of the hike, the boys all broke out their notebooks and started taking notes for the Forestry merit badge on the plants and trees being pointed out by Dr Bryon. Very quickly we covered things like the Lodge Pole Pine, Lichen and Aster.
One of the first highlights was stopping at Soda Springs as we hiked through the meadow. The water tastes like soda, hence the name. Check out the pictures on Costco to see how big it really is 😉 Not far from there we stopped for a few minutes at Parson’s Lodge before heading down the trail towards to our destination.
The miles piled up and around noon we stopped near a stream for a lunch and quick swim. It didn’t seem like much longer until we reached our destination. There we were able to see some of the far north east reaches of the park and down towards the Hetch Hetchy the path the back packers would take on their trip.
After a few minutes admiring the view we turned around and headed back towards camp. We eventually made it back to the Tuolumne River and stopped at a swimming hole near Soda Springs. The water wasn’t exactly warm, but it was very refreshing. After a nice swim we hiked back through the meadow and back to our camp as the sun set on our first full day in Yosemite.