For school I had to write a travelogue. Here it is.
My 6th grade class from Los Gatos, California spent four days and nights at Yosemite National Park. In addition to the 35 kids there were our chaperones. We took a charter bus from the school heading south east along highway 120 to Curry Village in Yosemite. On the way we stopped at a park in Oakdale to have lunch and stretch our legs. As soon as we arrived we began our week of nature studies, team building, and games.
We studied many elements of nature at Yosemite including rocks, trees, and rivers. One of the most amazing things was that the cliff next to the camp. It was 3,000 feet high which is much taller than the tallest building in the world which is Burj Dubai at 2,717 feet. Another of my favorite things that I saw was the giant sequoias, especially the tree called “Grizzly Giant”. It was 209 feet tall which is almost as tall as San Francisco’s Coit Tower which is only one foot taller than the tree. It looked very fictional. The difference between redwood and the sequoia trees is that redwoods get really tall and the sequoia doesn’t. The reason that they don’t grow tall is because the trees around them aren’t that tall so they don’t need to be extra tall to get sunlight. As I looked up at those trees I wondered how old they were and how many houses could be built from one of them.
Another amazing thing was the “Spider Caves” formed by a rock fall 400 years ago. It was great because there was so much teamwork plus it was really fun. The teamwork included working in the dark and telling the person behind you of any obstacles they might encounter, a rock in front of them, or if there was a three foot drop… Before we entered the Spider Caves I thought I would faint because I was nervous, very nervous, I did not know what to expect. When we entered, it was dark, eerie, and creepy. Our instructor did not allow us to turn on a flashlight because she wanted us to proceed by our sense of touch. I freaked out at the beginning going through the tiny hole, but I had to do it and I relied on the person in front of me for information, just as I passed information to the person following me. When I crawled through the final hole I was proud and sorry it was over.
We played many games at Yosemite. I liked one better than all the others. It was called Camouflage. One person was selected to be the “squirrel”. Everyone else was a fox. The point of the game was for the foxes to be out of sight of the “squirrel,” the foxes could see the squirrel. The squirrel held up numbers using his fingers. If the squirrel saw a fox, the fox was out. The fox who remembered all the numbers without being seen, won. Another good game was zipper tag which was a lot like traditional tag. I liked it for the exercise that I got.
Our final adventure was a hike to the Merced River where we played some more games. One of our chaperones found it fun to throw giant rocks into the river while talking with a Scottish accent. The last game that we played was tourist vs. animals. The way it works is the tourist tags the animals but the tourists can un-tag the other tourists. After that, the bus ride home was uneventful.
Yosemite celebrated its 120th year as a national park on October 1, 2010. I don’t think it has changed much because it is protected and I am glad it is because it was interesting to see its natural elements as they probably appeared to the people who first saw them in the 1800’s. Someday I would like to return in the winter to see if the waterfalls freeze. I felt very lucky to be there and I would recommend the park to anyone interested in seeing it.
Yesterday, on my day off my mom and I went sailing with some friends who have a sailboat.
