Yosemite National Park - June 3-8

We have loved our stays in the deserts or Arizona, Utah and Nevada, but after 6 months we find ourselves more than ready to head North to the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. As usual, the photos really can't begin to do justice to the awe inspiring scenery. As we begin to enter the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range we were overjoyed to see the immense mountains and the numerous mountain lakes as well as the deep canyon created by the glaciers as they cut through this spectacular mountain range.






Our first trip to Yosemite National Park from the East Entrance brings us to Olmstead Point and a view of the two most famous sites, El Capitan, elevation 7569 (on the left) and Half Dome elevation 8005 (on the right). By the way, there is no other half to Half Dome.

But, as far as we were concerned, the mountains are awesome, but as the spring weather begins to melt the mountain snow, the rush of the water over the rocks had us stopping frequently to get a closer view. Here is Mark in front of Yosemite Creek.


And then, as we entered the road to Yosemite Village (which is actually the bottom of the canyon) we had the "knock your socks off" view of the result of these snow melts: beautiful water falls decending from the mountain tops high above.


We took two hikes that brought us closer to two of the more famous falls which both have lots of spray in the spring and early summer. Our first was Yosemite Falls which has both a Lower and Upper Fall. You can see both falls in the background of the first photo, and in the second, I am standing at the end of the trail to the Lower Falls. These falls comes from the flow of water you saw in the earlier photo of Yosemite Creek.



And then, when we thought it just could not get any better, we headed out to Bridalveil fall. We followed the trail and were amazed as it led us right up to the base of this waterfall! I took this photo as we approached the base with the spray gently raining down on us! But, it got even better!!! On the way out of the park we saw traffic jamming up...a quick look out the window to see what everyone was looking at and we saw a bear!!!


The weather was not always cooperative, but Mark and I don't sit around and wait for it to rain. So, although they called for some rain, we headed off to take the Lembert Dome Hike. To give you some perspective, here is a photo of Lembert Dome and the second photo shows Mark as he was coming down from the top. He made it to about 30 feet below the top but, as we were up at about 9380 feet, it began to snow and made the granite mountain too slippery to proceed.



But, the just for fun shot is one of me standing in front of a fallen Sequoia, which can grow to have a base of 25 feet. Thought you would like to see the cold weather/rainy day get up. Thanks to the influence of my cousin Nadine, I am fully decked out in LL Bean raingear!


And, for all of our friends at Palm Creek who pull their golf clubs behind their bikes, here is the guy who one upped you! He almost got away but I just had to get this shot of the most unique way to transport a canoe!


We have to keep pinching ourselves to make sure that this adventure is not just a dream. It just keeps getting better and better. Next, we have two more stops in California before we head north to Oregon.