Life of Wry

I don’t want to jump the gun and prepare a photo retrospective of our annual Yosemite trips before we’re done with said trips… as I know we’ll continue this tradition as long as Jim and I are mobile and Peter’s willing to join us. On the other hand, 25 years of Yosemite trips seems like a good milestone and worth taking a pause to look back.

[Peter sent us his flight info today so I’ve got Yosemite on my mind; we leave in three days. I did the math, and this will be our 26th year.]

We pose in front of our Toulumne Meadows tent cabin each year. I’ve assembled all of the takes from all of the years in a digital photo album that lives on my laptop. It’s a huge collection. I’ve also created a smaller album with a selected one best cabin photo … and that’s what’s below, in chronological order. (I’m a little embarrassed that more of these feature me with Peter than Jim with Peter, but that’s just the way the pictures happened. Down the road, I’m planning a large photo book with highlights of each year’s trips, including the hikes we took.. but, like I said, that’s down the road. In any case, it’s very likely to feature billions of Jim and Peter pics, since I’m the family photographer.. so no worries, Jim!)

Without further ado…

2000, our first trip to Tuolumne Meadows. We followed the suggestion of our friends Rick and Gigi who took their sons to TM and stayed in the tent cabins, also annually, for 25 years (as I recall). R&G joined us that year and introduced us to numerous hikes.. hikes we still do to this day. This first year, Peter had just turned two.

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005 Someone starts getting goofy.

2006

2007

2008

2009 Finally, Jim makes the scene! And Peter gets more serious.. or just older!

2010 Now who’s goofy!

2011

2012 Braces on.

2013

2014 Braces off.

2015

2016 Peter just graduated from high school.

2017 Finished first year of college at UC San Diego.

2018

2019

2020 Covid year, the tent cabins closed. We camped outside the park, but dropped by the unassembled tent cabins — sad — for the annual pic! Peter is now in grad school at U Mich.

2021 Same story, cabins still closed. We again camped outside the park.

2022 Same story! Cabins have not yet reopened! This time we stayed in Lee Vining.

2023 Maya joined us! Her first trip to Yosemite! Tuolumne Meadows Tent Cabins are still closed. Again, we stayed in Lee Vining.

2024 The tent cabins finally opened but Jim and I lost out on reservations. We were able to get one night, and we took it! Peter made the trip to Yosemite, but spent his Sierra time this year on the John Muir Trail (240+ miles from Mt Whitney to Yosemite Valley, passing through Tuolumne Meadows. It counts!)

Whew! That’s a lotta tent cabins, hiking, campfires, dining room meet and greets, family, friends, games, swims, marmots, storms, wildfire smoke, mosquitoes … wonderful trips, each and every one.

Looking forward to the next 25, starting with our trlp later this week!