Beauty Beyond Words

I promised a few weeks ago that I'd post about an amazing experience I had on my recent trip to the Eastern Sierra...but...

1. The experience was too big and amazing and beautiful to capture with a camera...although, I have a LOT of amazing photos...I wouldn't be able post enough to truly show how incredible this place is.

2. It was amazing beyond words!!!

So...all I can say is that you must, Must, MUST visit Yosemite sometime in your life! I felt that Zion was near to Heaven but Yosemite....Wow! There's a reason so many people visit there and why there are so many photos, books, paintings, etc. Incredible!

We've camped just outside the east entrance mannnnny times and I can't figure out why we never went into the park! I'm just so glad we finally did! On this trip we went into Yosemite twice. The first visit was in the mid afternoon and it was raining and soooo beautiful! Right after we turned around to head back, the sun came out and...who would have thought it was possible?...it became even more beautiful!!! Stunning!!!!

There was a stop we made to see a small lake that was like a mirror, surrounded with trees, green, flowers, grasses, mountains with snow, a blue sky and perfect puffy clouds, moisture in the air and a scent, energy, ..... I don't know how to continue to describe it except that it was soooooo amazing that I burst into tears and wept! I can't even explain that! I had just never seen anything so beautiful in my life and it just happened! Like I said...there are no words!

On the way back to camp we stopped at several vista points. A couple of them had signs with quotes. Great quotes! If anything comes close to explaining my experience...this is it...

"Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language."
Aldo Leopold

And...

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace flows into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."
John Muir

We went back into the park again the next morning for a day long hike and found more awesome beauty. We can't wait to go back again and again. There is so much to see and experience in Yosemite. I know this will be a destination for many more of our vacations, for the rest of our lives!