Today I made it to Yosemite. After a ‘small’ breakfast of two scrambled eggs, two rashers of bacon and two buttermilk (large) pancakes with maple syrup and waddled back to the car feeling very full (good job I didn’t go for a big breakfast) and made the hour drive into Yosemite. The scenery remains fairly typical until you are within a few miles of the main park centre then wham! Huge cliffs and valleys appear on the right hand side of the road.
You can tell it is dramatic by the cars pulled over at the convenient vista points. Then the most famous of them all, El Capitan (The Captain) just appears in front of you.
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| 3000' of Granite |
Over 3000 feet of granite straight up into the air. I pulled over to take the obligatory pictures and take a walk to the nearby bridal falls water fall. Most of the water falls in Yosemite are fed by snow melt so by this time of year they are much less spectacular than in the spring. A lot of them dry up completely.
Once done with the Captain I drove into the main Yosemite Village. This is a large area with accommodations from camp sites to hotels, shops and tourist information points. The Ansel Adams shop is also here. A hybrid powered shuttle bus fleet constantly ferries people around the village. I jumped on this for a free tour and to get my bearings. It was nearing midday and the light was pretty difficult for photography as the contrast between light and shadows was very marked.
Once I had completed the circuit I took a look in the shops then took the shuttle out to the start of a hike to the top of Vernal Falls. This is described as ‘strenuous’ as although it is only 3 mile round trip you climb (and then descend) 1000 feet to get to the top of the falls.
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| Vernal Falls |
The last quarter consists mostly of steps made of granite blocks which greatly help the climb but they did remind me of the part of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ where Gollum leads Frodo and Sam into Mordor. Fortunately there was no giant spider at the top but a rather welcome shaded area with the gently flowing stream; that has no idea it is about to plunge over the edge of a vertical drop 100’s of feet high. There were also a lot of squirrels and Stellar’s Jays eager to share sandwiches.
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| Stellar's Jay |
Once back in the village I had another look round the shops then thought about heading home, it was about 6:00 by then. Just by the car I noticed a small stream so went for a look and saw it gave a great view of Half Dome peak, lit up by the late sunshine. Took a few photos then as I was packing up a fellow photographer mentioned he thought the moon would be rising behind the dome soon. After a while there were 8 photographers set up waiting for the moon. Unfortunately, it had not appeared by 7 P.M. so I decided to head off as the light was failing and various compasses and PDAs indicated the moon would not be in the place we thought anyway. I thought that I might get a view on the way back out of the village. Which I did, just a mile or so down the road. Stopped again, got the camera and tripod out and snapped away.
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| Moon and Half Dome |
Finished up by 7:30 and drove back in the darkness of the countryside.
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