We were back on the road before 7:00 am and headed to Glacier Point, just south of Yosemite Valley. We stopped by Bridalveil Falls again, just because we thought it was so amazing and then the next stop was Tunnel View. The sun wasn't working with us this morning and we were just about a half hour too late for some great pictures. We did the best we could though and ended up with a few pictures.
This is about the best we could do on this shot.
El Capitan is to the left, Half Dome in the very back,
looking like a hooked peak and then
Cathedral Rocks on the right.
The tunnel at Tunnel View
The effects of a fire in 1990
While at one of the gift shops in Yosemite Valley, I found a book, The Road Guide to Yosemite. It's a great guide book with a lot of history in it. If the book said something was .4 miles, that's exactly how far it was! Using the book, we found this stop that only had enough space for 1 or 2 cars. In this picture, you can see the Clark Range in the background. In the background is Mount Clark, Gray Peak, Red Peak and Merced Peak.
The Clark Range
Just around the corner from the Clark Range was Washburn Point. This had a big viewing area and lots of people. This was a similar view to where we last stopped but had a great view of Half Dome from another side. I almost didn't recognize it! From this side, it looks sort of like a bird.
Washburn Point
The picture below is also at Washburn Point but looking west.
Washburn Point
Washburn Point - Half Dome in the center
At Washburn Point, we were able to find Illilouette Falls. It had some water coming down it too. I would love to see one of these falls when the water is pouring over one, full force!
Illilouette Falls
Conrad at Washburn Point
We finally made it to Glacier Point. There were so many hairpin turns on the way there though. We had to walk about a quarter of a mile from the parking lot to the viewing area.
Here's Half Dome again, at Glacier Point
Looking down at Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point
Looking down on the Royal Arches and North Dome from the top
Here are the Arkansas tourists in front of Half Dome!
Conrad was wanting to find some people on top of Half Dome and kept watching and finally found some. He took this picture below and then after we got home we enlarged it to show the two people up there. It is 8.2 miles to hike from the valley floor to the top of Half Dome. About 50,000 people a year climb this rock.
You can see the two people out on the rock.
After leaving Glacier Point it was past lunchtime. We found a quiet place to eat lunch in the car under some trees. This is Summit Meadow.
Next up was Mariposa Grove, near the southern entrance of Yosemite. We had to park nearby and ride the shuttle to the grove. Once there, you could either walk the 5 mile loop around or pay to take the tram. We took the tram and it was a very bumpy ride and hard to take pictures. We stopped at a few places along the tour to take pictures but couldn't get off. We had headphones for the narration. We did make two stops where we could get off for about 10 minutes. The tour was a little over an hour.
The tram
One of the fallen trees - named the Fallen Monarch
A giant sequoia that had a fire hollow it out
Conrad (on the right) next to two Giant Sequoias
A close-up of the above picture
Here I am - standing in front of the Grizzly Giant. It is the oldest tree and second largest tree in the grove with a volume of 34,010 cubic feet.
Conrad standing inside the California Tunnel Tree
It was another day of beautiful views and lots of "WOW"! There are so many wonderful places to visit in our country I'm so thankful we have the opportunity to travel and see so many of them. Tomorrow we'll be meeting up with Brent and Jackie and heading to Kings Canyon and Sequoia. I'm just wondering how it's going to get any better!
No comments:
Post a Comment