These are the dog days. Here in Yosemite it is 100 degrees: Hot, Dry, and Dusty.

Our rustic, little cabin provides shade but little relief beyond that. It is designed for winter: to keep the heat in. It is a star splashed midnight before it finally cools enough to sleep. 

At dinner time we come home from our daily hikes, almost boiling over ourselves. We can’t cook. We can’t add heat to heat.

Coconut water is our refuge. Banana Coconut Ice is our delight.

Here’s how:

Mash 3 bananas in a blender if you have it. We don’t, so I use a potato masher. The kids enjoy using their hands. Pour in 1-2 cups coconut milk. Add a small pinch of pink salt and 1 teaspoon maple syrup. Stir well.

Pour the mixture into an ice cube tray, evenly distributing. You can put wooden stirrers, broken in half. or a toothpick, into the middle of each cube, standing straight up, to make them like popsicles. Put in the freezer for 2-3 hours, minimum.

We didn’t have “popsicle sticks,” so we put them in a bowl and named them, after Yosemite’s famous monolith, “Little Half Domes.”

For refreshing elegance, you could serve them in a bowl with fresh berries, garnished with mint. For an elegant refreshment, add two to three cubes to soda water and garnish with mint.

Despite the heat, it is all worthwhile as Yosemite is one of the greatest reminders that nature is majestic, eternal, infinite and insistent ~ and you are an integral part of this wonder. As the Yogis say, “Tat Tvam Asi,” meaning You Are That!

If you do come to Yosemite checkout this great Hiking Guide + Tips to the Park.

xo