Yosemite National Park

It's a beautiful sunny day in Las Vegas, Nevada.  We've left California and are on the way home, but we have about a month before we arrive.  We still have a number of national parks to visit.  I'm a little behind on the blog.  One week ago we went to Yosemite National Park in the California Sierra Nevada mountains.  It was a wonderful experience.

We left the RV in the town of Chowchilla and drove the Jeep into Yosemite.  We were concerned about steep, winding road and potentially snow, so we made reservations for one night in one of the lodges in the park.

It was a beautiful drive into the park, following the river that helped create it, the Merced.  The hills were covered with beautiful flowers.

But this was not an average "drive in the park."  At one point the road reduced to one lane and we had to cross to the other side of the river.  As we drove, we saw that the original road was buried under a rock slide!  We hope no one was under there!

Also, there were a number of times when we were glad we didn't have the RV, such as the following.

We learned quite a bit about the park.  It's very large but we limited ourselves to what people call Yosemite Valley.  This is a broad U-shaped valley around the Merced River.  The U shape was made by glaciers.  The sides of the valley are unique because they were originally formed when magma hardened, cooled, while still underground. In fact, it was about a mile under the surface!  Over millions of years, erosion wore down what was on top (it moved over to the parts of California that are now very fertile agricultural areas) and then additional erosion and glaciers created what we see today.  Amazing stuff.

One big attraction is Yosemite Falls, 2,400 feet over three falls, the second largest in the world.  This is a seasonal falls because the water comes from snow melt.  In the late summer and fall there's no water!

We took the very easy hiking "trail" (paved!) to the lower falls. You can see people in the rocks at the bottom of the lower falls.  It gives a good idea of the scale.

Matthew found various items of interest along the way.  Rocks to climb, pine cones, and snow!

Another big attraction in the valley is "Half Dome," made famous by Ansel Adams photographs.  There's a trail to the summit, but we didn't take it.  Ha!

It looks so different depending on your vantage point.

One popular hiking destination is Mirror Lake.  Over the years this has been a major attraction.  Under the right conditions, it's easy to see why.

 It turns out that Half Dome is on the right and the thing to the left is called North Dome.

The happy family.

Other miscellaneous items - Matthew striking a pose inspired by a stature of John Muir.

 Matthew worked on a Junior Ranger.  Here he is receiving it from a park ranger.

 Bill went for an early morning hike and saw some deer along the river.  This was shot with this phone.

 Another "reflection" picture.  This was also shot with Bill's phone.  It was great to enjoy the park in the stillness of the morning - no buses, no crowds of people, and the river was very still.

We could have spent much more time in Yosemite, but we had to stay on schedule.  On the way out we were impressed by another iconic image from the park - El Capitan.

We really enjoyed our time at Yosemite.  There were lots of people there, but it really lived up to our expectations.  Plus, we got to sleep in a real bed!  And take a shower without walking across a parking lot!  There's a lot to be said for staying in a hotel.