Yosemite: St. Joseph's 7th grade inspired by field trip Yosemite: St. Joseph's 7th grade inspired by field trip (October 15, 2003)

By Miles McMullin
7th grader at St. Joseph's

Yosemite. It should be the Eighth Wonder of the World --complete with the best climbing mountains, high waterfalls, and the most beautiful sights of nature. If I were to write a dictionary definition of Yosemite, that is what it would be.

In mid-September, my seventh-grade class visited Yosemite National Park. What a trip!

When I first heard of it, I figured it would be a boring trip with talkative, mind-numbing naturalists. But from the first day, I was blown away. Massive Sequoia trees 300 feet high, towering waterfalls, and, best of all, legendary Half Dome greeted us.

Our class didn't get to take the 18-mile hike to the top of Half Dome, but next year we will. Climbing Half Dome is a tradition for the eighth-grade class.

When we arrived at a place called Crane Flat, there were old wood cabins filled with dozens of bunk beds. I picked one in a cave-like area in the room, a great place to have a good night's sleep without being bothered.

The first night I got high-altitude sickness. Although I got to lie in bed and be waited on, it wasn't fun. So, right at 9:30 at lights out, I fell asleep, and awoke in the morning feeling totally refreshed. What a relief!

The second day we went on a hike with our naturalist, "Steve-O," or "Mr. Steve," as we called him, the coolest naturalist ever. We saw "Dead Fred," a giant, fallen Sequoia that we could crawl through, one of the trip's highlights.

The night of the second day, we drove down to the valley, where we stayed at Curry Village, which had shops, ice cream places, and awesome food. We stayed in very snug cabins of four kids to a cabin (our choice). You had to put all food and scented items, such as shampoo, in bear lockers made of heavy metal. Personally, I thought it would be cool to see a bear, but unfortunately we didn't.

The third day was the best of our four-day trip. We got to see Yosemite Falls and experience the legendary spider caves, created from rock falls -- when huge boulders fall off mountains and destroy anything in their path. We had rock fall drills, which gave me the chills every time "Steve-O" yelled, "Rock fall!"

In the spider caves, "Steve-O" wouldn't let us turn on our flashlights, which scared me, but it was worth it. In the beginning, we crawled down something called the birth canal. It was a very skinny passageway, followed by a 5-foot drop. You held the hand of the person in front of you; if you let go, you would probably bonk your head on a sharp rock.

At the end of the caves, "Steve-O" lit a candle and what I saw amazed me: jagged rocks everywhere, huge humps of rocks, with little dead-end trails leading off to the side. After we got out, "Steve-O" amazed us by saying that it was only his third time in there.

On the fourth day, we had our "Challenge Hike": A 10-mile, round-trip hike up to beautiful Vernal Falls. On this hike, we saw lots of deer, coyotes and squirrels; we encountered foot bridges, huge boulders, and what seemed like thousands of steep stairs. Kids were falling and hurting their ankles, and morale was low, but with lots of stops and breathers, we trudged on.

When everyone made it to the top, we cheered, took pictures and had a delicious lunch. When we made it to the bottom, we all were very happy and totally exhausted.

The next day we left amazing Yosemite and went home on a six-hour bus ride, our only stop being McDonald's. Yosemite was one of the greatest, most remarkable trips I have ever had, and I will remember it for life.