Scenes around Yosemite

A set of photos from around Yosemite - what a beautiful place!

One of our first views while driving in to the campground:

Thank you John Muir!!

One special highlight was attending an evening presentation by Shelton Johnson, a park ranger who we recognized from Ken Burns' National Parks show.  It was neat seeing him in person, and he put on a spectacular show about the Buffalo Soldiers, some of the first to protect the park.  Thoroughly enjoyed it, thank you Shelton!

Checking out the tree rings at the visitor center:

An Indian motorcycle donated to the museum:

The lovely path up to Lower Falls:

The cliffs above the falls, including a fin that looks like it might not stay up there forever:

A tree growing on the side of a rock face - ?

Yosemite Falls was dry (normal for this time of year), which is reason enough for us to come back again in the spring :)

A pathway for John:

The face of Half Dome:

Mirror Lake - obviously also dry at this point:

Cairn City:

El Capitan!

I biked out to the "Ask a Climber" afternoon event and got to chat with some climbers and ask questions.  There were several parties up on the wall and scopes were set out to look at what they were up to.  Many of them were climbing up the nose:

Examples of climbing gear:

A digi-scope attempt to check out a couple guys hanging out on their camping platform:

The other scope was set up to catch a glimpse of a couple of climbers.  Quite far away, but still easier than watching wolves:

Neat setup, what a great way to get a brief look at El Cap climbing.

On our way out, we stopped so John could see El Capitan (also note the great amount of smoke up the valley, definitely past time to leave):

El Cap in the morning light:

Such an amazing place!  We're excited to have many reasons to go back and visit again!

Glacier Point and Panorama Trail

We woke up to a rather smoky Yosemite Valley, so I was happy I had already planned to climb up high that morning.  I shuttled to the Lodge and walked over to the 4 Mile Trail, starting up the many switchbacks.  I enjoyed the easy grade while gaining altitude at a decent clip.

Soon there were views of the north rim and the walls of granite visible in that direction:

Looking west toward the valley entrance, not sure if this haze is from the Rough Fire (many miles away) or if it drifted down from the fire burning on the north rim above us.  At least the sky above is nice and blue!

High spires above the trail:

There has been a ton of work put into making the trails around here:

Lovely trail in the morning shadows:

Hello lizard:

And... there's the fire and billowing smoke on the opposite rim:

I didn't know I'd be getting a show that morning - at least 3 planes circling at all times, dropping flame retardant and water.  I could have stood for hours watching them come around, fly low over the smoke, drop a load of red powder, then zoom overhead and circle way up the valley to line it up again.  One of the planes was a huge "Very Large Air Tanker," a converted DC-10 that was spectacular to watch.  Possibly the one I got a photo of?

Good morning, Half Dome:

A group setting up to work on something (trail work maybe?):

More views:

Up high on the trail was a good spot to see the extent of the fire, wow, it had spread a lot since we first spotted it from atop Half Dome the day before:

Interesting moss on the trees:

An enterprising squirrel who managed to carry the entire pine cone away with him:

Unlike the "photo opportunity" spot up on Half Dome, this one is roped off from tourists:

Love the view up the valley along Half Dome:

One more shot of the fire:

Looking down at the lodge and Merced River:

Yep, that is definitely Half Dome over there (along with a bunch of other features that I'm slowly learning more about):

Starting down the Panorama Trail, this caught my eye:

Illilouette Falls on the way around the Panorama Trail:

It was a fun run around, up, and down the trail, merging with the John Muir Trail and eventually taking me back down to the valley.  Nice day!

John ran the loop in the opposite direction the next morning and captured this image with his phone:

OK, that's a lot of smoke.  By far the most we have had to deal with this summer, amid all the haze from various wildfires across California and the Pacific NW.  I feel for the people who have to live in these conditions all the time, and I appreciate all the more our ability to drive our "house" away from it when necessary.

Yosemite was smoky, but we were still enjoying it tremendously for a few days.

Half Dome Day

Yosemite!  Let's start with the big one - our hike up to Half Dome.  We scored permits in the lottery a few months ago and basically planned our visit around it.  It was fun to bike over to the trailhead from the campground and start walking from there.

The start of the trail, also the start of the John Muir Trail, which is very cool and maybe a trail we will follow the whole way someday (211 miles to Mount Whitney!):

Beautiful trail heading up the valley:

I opted for the Mist Trail instead of the JMT bypass in order to see Vernal Falls.  Fun duck-under rock:

And a beautiful waterfall!  There wasn't a whole lot of water but it was still flowing, and we can imagine how amazing it is during spring snowmelt.  Water flows out of cracks in the rocks and there is a rhythmic "clink clink" as it hits the rocks at the bottom.  I enjoyed spending some time admiring Vernal Falls:

The last steps up to the top of the falls:

A glimpse of Nevada Falls, also tall and gorgeous, just harder to see:

The back side of Half Dome - we're coming!

Starting up the trail on the "subdome," the smaller hump with a lovely trail cut into the rock:

Stunning view of the valley to the east - that's a lot of granite:

Seems like an appropriate place for a selfie, with the cables in the background:

So, I put the camera away and concentrated on getting up the cables.  Wow, that's a steep rock face!  We hauled ourselves up, and I was rather amazed that this is an actual "thing" that people do.  We had brought a lanyard for me, just in case, and I was more than happy to have it along.  Yes please, I would like to clip myself into the cables as backup protection.  With that many people above and below us, and with the rock being THAT STEEP, it made sense to be clipped in (even though it was just to my backpack strap and not a harness).

Wow, just wow.  The cables and posts and planks made it a doable endeavor, and quite memorable.  Eventually, waiting our turn as people pulled themselves up above us, we made it to the top.  Yay!

One of our first views from the top was over to the north rim and the beginnings of a fire, hmm:

A guy taking a picture of a group over on the jut-out rock:

Looking back to where we were just sitting, it is quite an impressive spot:

A view toward the west and the entrance to Yosemite Valley.  It was a bit hazy from the Rough Fire (which is many miles away but huge), happily this particular day was about as clear as it would get:

John took a photo of the valley below (I declined to get close to the edge):

Yep, doing just fine over here on this rock  :)

Yay for being on top of Half Dome!

I was surprisingly more comfortable on the way down (compared to going up, probably because I was wondering the whole way up how the heck I was going to get down!).  Good gloves and a rappel technique worked great.  I was happy enough that I got out the camera for a couple mid-descent shots:

Lots of people still coming up, fun that I got to meet a lot of them and chat briefly at each post:

John made it down way before me (he probably ran down or something) and took the opportunity to snap a couple photos with his phone - that's me at the bottom of the picture:

I made it!  Very happy to have the lanyard, and I highly recommend it for anyone not completely comfortable with this kind of thing:

It was a fun run all the way down.  I spotted a woodpecker in a tree along the way:

John Muir Trail sign:

View from the top of Nevada Falls (following the JMT all the way down):

Amazing trails built into the side of cliffs:

And the view in the other direction:

A decent glimpse of Nevada Falls:

And one last look at Half Dome from that back - thank you Half Dome!

And, oh, that fire is getting larger.  We should probably keep an eye on that...

What a fun day!  Totally enjoyed it.