Sam is working for a few months at the Tenaya Lodge resort in Fish Camp, California. It is a couple of miles from the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park.
Here is where he lives along with some of his co-workers.
We had fun visiting him and spending time with him in the Yosemite area! One morning we took this one hour train ride through the forest and learned about the trees and the logging that took place in this area. It was beautiful and interesting. Always love a steam train ride!
On our trips into and out of the park we stopped several times at the Tunnel View overlook:
It has one of the most beautiful views in the park with El Capitan on the left and Half Dome on the right. Talking about the picture below although I'll answer to El Capitan if you call me that!
Can you see Sam in this photo?
We got to see Sam doing some of his parkour moves:
And he taught us that this formation is called the Three Brothers:
We also learned from him that you can tell the difference between a Jeffrey Pine and a Ponderosa Pine by getting up close and taking a big whiff of the bark. If it smells like butterscotch, it is a Jeffrey Pine!
Yup! It's a Jeffrey pine. The nose knows!
We also stopped quite a few times to just gaze up at El Capitan.
Sam taught us that there is a boot-shaped piece on this part of the formation. Can you see it?
Here's a close up from the above picture. Those black specks on the top and the top right-hand corner of the "boot" are rock climbers! It is amazing to try to spot the climbers and watch them.
So now go back and look at the picture above this one to find the "boot."
And then take a look at El Capitan again and imagine climbing to the top!
I've put a circle around the "boot" just to give you an idea of where it is.
El Capitan is 3,000 feet high!
We saw these signs in quite a few places and Sam taught us that they put one of these signs at any location where a bear has been killed by a car. Feeling badly that we saw so many!
Sam had been in the area for over a month and had not seen a bear. We almost always see a bear or two when we have visited Yosemite. So we kept on the look out for one.
We pulled over when we saw several cars stopped and Sam was the first one to see bears!
Sam also pointed us to some good eating places including the hotel restaurant and this barbecue place in Oakhurst. Yummy!
Sam loves to hike! So one day we dropped him off at a trailhead and we picked him up a few hours later after almost a 9 mile hike. As you can see he started out in snow!
He posted these pictures. He took a side trail to see this arch. That's Half Dome under the arch.
And he made it to the top of North Dome.
While he was hiking we drove back down to the valley and this is where he was from our view. That rounded dome at the top of the photo is North Dome and Sam was up there!
Thanks, Sam, for spending some time with us!
You are awesome in every way!!
