Yosemite is spectacular.
It started about an hour away when the flat and uninteresting sparsity spanning much of central California gave way to rolling yellow grasslands. The rolling hills soon became larger until we found ourselves winding up thousands of feet just outside of Yosemite proper. As we approached the trees embiggened rapidly ... well past the point of reasonableness.
Our first major sight was El Capitan. I only wish our pictures could do justice to a 5000ft shear rock-face.
By this point, however, we were on the verge of starvation after an unspectacular breakfast 4 hours earlier at the Hampton Inn, Sacramento. After managing to land some reasonable food, we launched into a 3 hour hike. Aiming for speed we brought nothing, not even water, and basically ran up the John Muir trail consisting of what seemed like a dozen switchbacks, a long natural granite staircase, and more boulders than you can ask "where did you come from?" All en route to a scenic overlook of giant rock features including "half dome" as well as two large waterfalls. (see photo of Pieter and I below). The huge number of scenic vistas throughout the valley is almost unbelievable.
The hike was more intense than we imagined and by the end we were not only parched, but satisfied that we had followed in John Muir's footsteps enough that it would be ok to depart (though not without great sadness). We snapped plenty of photos as we left and headed to Fresno where we find ourselves staying tonight, about 1100 miles into our trip.
Tomorrow will be a long day. We head for Sequoia, NP. Then we drive though Death Valley, NP on the way to Las Vegas where we'll spend the night.
Cool photos guys, looks like an epic return route. The jedi will indeed be taxed. Enjoy that southwest heat in AZ and NM!
ReplyDeleteInteresting fact about Yosemite: The first white people to "discover" it, a local militia on a raid to capture natives, named it Yosemite because they thought that was the name of the native people that lived there. Turns out, in the native language, Yosemite means something akin to "murderer" or "those who kill".