Travel Tuesday: Week 10

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Travel Tuesday! In honor of National Park Week (which ended Sunday), this week's topic is: Which is your favorite national park? What parks have you always wanted to visit? What are your favorite activities to do in a national park? As always, you are free to write about anything travel-related; don't feel obligated to answer my prompt. And, of course, don't forget to link up below!

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My favorite national park is, without a doubt, Yosemite. I mentioned it a little last week, so this week I wanted to share some photos from when I climbed Half Dome two summers again. It was also No. 43 on my to-do list. (I added it after I had already made the climb, but hey, it was something I had always wanted to do! So I wanted to cross it off my list.)

This is Half Dome! Pretty cool, huh?

Gorgeous views on the way up. (And if you were wondering, yes, all of the park is this pretty.)

There are a few different ways you can go up, but we elected to take the Mist Trail, which meant we basically got drenched hiking right up the side of a waterfall for a couple miles.

Chipmunk friend!

These are the cables you have to climb up at the very end to reach the top (left: view from the bottom, right: view from the top). Honestly, I thought going down was way scarier. It probably didn't help that a small thunderstorm started when we were on the top, so it was windy and a little wet going down.

Oh, but the view from the top is so worth it!

My mom about had a heart attack when she saw these pictures later. Oh well! We're safe. :)

The whole crew at the top for lunch: Joey and Richard (family friends who live near Yosemite and had done this before), my sister, my sister's college roommate, me and my brother.

Stopping for a little rest to put our feet in the water on the hike down.

And, in anticipation for Oh How Pinteresting Wednesday with The Vintage Apple tomorrow, here are some gorgeous pictures from national parks I have yet to visit (visiting all 58 is also on my to-do list):

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming | Source: grosventreriverranch.wordpress.com via Megan on Pinterest

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming/Montana/Idaho | Source: vacationorholiday.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

Saguaro National Park, Arizona | Source: adventure-journal.com via Megan on Pinterest

Denali National Park, Alaska | Source: alaska-in-pictures.com via Megan on Pinterest

Isle Royale National Park, Michigan | Source: outsideonline.com via Outside on Pinterest

On the schedule for next week: Traveling with kids. How do you feel about it? If you're a parent, how do you decide what trips your kids get to go on? If you're not yet a parent, at what age do you think you'll start taking your kids on vacation with you? This is just something I've always wondered about when I see babies in places like Las Vegas, for example, or hear about people who traveled internationally when they were too young to remember. So spill! What's your philosophy?