• Expedition: Apr 27 - May 2, 2014
  • Generation Green Central California Consortium
  • Yosemite National Park: Little Yosemite Valley

Students from Reedley and Orange Cove High Schools' Generation Green clubs came together for a 5-night adventure in Yosemite National Park. They named themselves the Very Awesome Climbing Monkeys, and during the week, they hiked up the exciting Mist Trail, challenged themselves to eat new foods, hiked up Quarter Dome, completed a stewardship project with a National Park Service wilderness ranger met a professional astronomer, ate countless gummy gears, and creating hand bridges for other hikers ("TREE!").

4/28/14 – Jose

Today we learned a lot through the whole day. We started out our day with some delicious breakfast. From there we met up and a ranger came to talk to us. We learned a lot from him in the way that had an interesting background and a lot of knowledge to share with us. After the talk we went for a walk in the trails. While we were there we played different activities and also learned more about nature and its beauty it has to offer. From there we met with Katie and she gave us our gear for our hiking trip and she made sure we were all set up. They also taught us how to pack up our things in the correct way. From there we went to lunch and after we took a small hike and enjoyed our nice view. After all this I have to say I had a great day and we also learned a lot. I look forward to learning more and most importantly having fun! :)

Group Earth Ball

Playing a game to work on teambuilding.

Group Contract

Setting a group contract for things to include and leave out during the week.

4/29/14 – Manuela

Once Tuesday hit, I became extremely nervous. I’ve never been backpacking before so I didn’t know what to expect. I thought, “Oh I might see a nice meadow, maybe some bears.” This is reality, of course that’s not what happened. Later on when we were walking on the trail I was feeling good, excited and didn’t really need water. When we reached the slope I was just about ready to die. Let me make this clear, that was the first slope we went up and it was definitely not the last one. Somehow I survived. I was like, “O.K. From here everything should be easy.” Well it wasn’t. As we kept going the slopes became steeper and steeper. There were many times I wanted to give up or just cry. However I knew better than that. I wanted to accomplish something. Once we reached the top of Nevada Falls the whole thing was worth it. The view was incredible, it was like nothing I’ve ever seen. When hiking up I regretted coming and everything but once I actually stopped and saw the view those negative feelings left and I was glad. Shortly after we got to Little Yosemite Valley and settled in, everything was so different. There was no people, no kids screaming, no nothing. Just peace and quiet. That hike helped me learn that you should trust in yourself and go all the way because the world needs more crazy daring people.

Group Lunch

Picnic lunch out on trail.

Group Nevada Liberty Cap

Some of the fantastic sights along the way: Nevada Falls and Liberty Cap.

4/30/14 – Selene

Today it is April 30th, 2014 and it is the first day of the group out in the wilderness and the group seems to be enjoying the day and the beautiful nice, cool weather. This morning it was also Alejandro’s birthday so we sang the birthday song to him. We have also finished setting up camp here in Little Yosemite Valley. Within the last 4 hours we have gathered water and have gone on a small hike about a quarter mile from where we have the camp set up and on our small but wonderful hike we came across a few patches of snow where we had a small but fun snowball fight. Today we also got to meet a park ranger who talked to us about her job and why it is important to preserve the wilderness and how we could help protect the wildlife that lives throughout the park. With the help of the ranger we helped clean the campsite where we are at and we also helped remove some of the fire rings that did not belong in the area. This evening we had dinner with our new family and we sat around a ring of fire and cooked s’mores and talked about different things. Later we were all ready for sleep but we could not go to sleep until the group had come to an agreement on where we would hike tomorrow. At night as most of the group was getting ready for bed we saw all the starts and a shooting star pass right over our campfire.

Group Mist Trail

Hiking Yosemite's famed Mist Trail.

Group Nevada Falls

Enjoying the view at the top of Nevada Falls after a hard climb up.

5/1/14 – Luis

Today we had gone to Quarter Dome. It was a success. I really enjoyed it with all the new people I met which I would call them my second family. Then later I and Alejandro cooked for all of us to eat. We ate Mac n Cheese. Later we all had time to meet some astronomers. Lastly we all slept outside and got to see the stars.

Group Stellar's Jay

A local Yosemite resident says, "Hello."

5/2/14 – Martha Today we woke up at 5:30 a.m. We woke up early to be able to get out of Little Yosemite Valley. Once we woke up we got to work. We started to pack our stuff up. Once everyone was ready, we were set to go. Getting to Nevada Falls we stopped to have some bagels for breakfast. We took half an hour to eat breakfast. After we took off and didn’t stop. We stopped ‘til we got to where were going to meet up with Katie.

Group Hands Merced

Braving the cold snow melt of the Merced River.

Group Wilderness Lesson

Learning about national wilderness areas and "leave no trace" principles with National Park Service wilderness ranger Lissie.

WildLink is a proud partner of the National Park Service, National Forest Service, and Nature Bridge.