Camp Mather, week 1

San Francisco owns a great campground right next to the Hetch Hetchy entrance to Yosemite where they host family camps all summer. Our friends Tom and Jana introduced us a few years ago. We just returned from a week of fun there - gorgeous surroundings, perfect weather, and good friends.

We spent some of each day at Birch Lake, either playing in the lagoon for Alec, or swimming in the lake for N and I.

"fishing"

And went to O'Shaughnessy Dam after dinner one evening.

Took a few short, Alec-length hikes, including one to Mud Lake.

 

 And spent lots of time just hanging out and enjoying ourselves.

slacklining

Relaxing in front of cabin 93

Stomp rockets!

Alec's favorite place to watch the action - a big boulder near our cabin

Camping near Yosemite

the controversial and very beautiful Hetch Hetchy

This past weekend we were invited by some friends to join them at Camp Mather, a family camp owned by the city of SF. We had a great time (thanks Tom, J, C, and E!) The weather wasn't super hot, but we had several nice nature hikes and some relaxing time by the lake. What a beautiful spot! The camp is next to Yosemite in Hetch Hetchy valley, which was dammed to create SF's reservoir, and was initially used to house workers building the O'Shaughnessy dam. It has been a camp since 1924.

tennis anyone?

We went on several guided hikes, one around Birch Lake, used for swimming, and also home to fish and some very big frogs

And a morning hike from the dam down to the Tuolomne River, where we saw beautiful wildflowers and a rattlesnake!

and lots of rocks

The afternoons were spent relaxing by the lake...

Ahhh, vacation!