Rafting - June/July, 2001

The trip took place at the end of June and beginning of July. It took a while to get the trip organized, but my Aunt finally pulled it together. There were seven of us - my Aunt Marion, my cousin Caleb, my cousin Shayne, Ana (Shayne's wife), Nalani and Malia (Shayne and Ana's two oldest daughters), and myself.

The plan was to do the actual River Rafting over the weekend of June 30 and July 1, and then see what we felt like doing after that. It turns out, what we felt like doing was going to Yosemite. So we did. Drove down California Highway 49 for about 6-7 hours and eventually ran into Yosemite. It actually took a while for it to dawn on me why the state named that particular highway 49. (Gold Rush, 49ers, get it?)

We stayed at the River Rafting campground for three nights (June 29th through July 1) and then decided went down to Yosemite National Park on July 2. I had never been, so I was excited about going there. We did stop along the way, to breakfast and to take a tour of an actual working mine. The breakfast worked out just fine (stopped in Placerville at a Cocos or something like that); the tour did not. Our timing was good as it was just leaving, but there was not enough room for all of us on the tour. So we didn't go.

At Yosemite we camped in the Lone Wolf campground the first night, and then took a very quick look at the park the following day, complete with about a 5-mile hike up to the top of Vernal Falls. Yosemite is a very beautiful place to go visit. Lots of people, though.

And, that in a nutshell, is what we did and where we did it. Everyone took a lot of pictures, which are on the following pages along with some commentary. We really didn't get any of the actual rafting even though both Malia and I had waterproof cameras. In the future I will know to always use Kodak; Fuji water proof cameras just don't work well. But to see all the pictures that did turn out and some from the professional photographers strategically stationed along the American River, visit the following pages.