Taking the kids to Yosemite National Park
Rivers Klopson, 5, turns cartwheels in the sunshine on the flat rocks next to Yosemite's famous Vernal Fall, oblivious to the strangers smiling at her.
Like the Klopsons, who live near Monterey, Calif., and chose to visit Yosemite in October to avoid the summer crowds, we've just finished the challenging hike up 600 slick granite steps to the top of this spectacular waterfall, getting thoroughly splashed in the process. (No wonder they call it the Mist Trail!) The views of the falls along the way are captivating and nowhere in the world are so many waterfalls concentrated in so small an area as in Yosemite Valley. It's easy to see why this is one of the park's most popular hikes, drawing some 2,000 hikers daily in summer, despite the 1,000-foot gain in altitude.
"This was our first big hike in Yosemite," Rivers' 8-year-old brother Leif Klopson proudly reports.
"I liked getting wet," Rivers added.
I smile remembering two other kids about the same age who were equally proud of themselves for making it to the top of Vernal Fall, also their first "big hike" in Yosemite.
Those proud kids were my two — Reggie and Matt. We left baby Melanie at home as the three of us embarked on a fall tour of Northern California for a book I was writing. Some 15 years later, my knee a littler worse for wear, I'm back on the same trail with my husband Andy, Reggie and her boyfriend Dan Foldes, both of whom now live in San Francisco.
Reggie has grown up to love the outdoors; she has led teens on summer backpacking trips in Yosemite, in fact. All those national parks trips when she was a kid — like the one to Yosemite — she says, spurred her interest. (Visit www.nps.gov and a new interactive Web site www.ohranger.com where you can ask questions and share your experiences.)