Yosemite Valley

 Hello Friends,

On Monday, July 19th, we got up early again, to get into the park before the hordes of visitors arrive at around ten o'clock. Even with the reservations that are required to get into Yosemite National Park, the valley in particular, is crawling with visitors by noon each day and weekends are even more crowded.

After driving only a short distance into the valley we encountered even more devastation left behind by a wildfire that happened last year. It's so sad to see the ruins of such beautiful forests due to these wildfires. Even our national icons are not immune to this devastation.

There were places where we saw entire mountains nearly completely denuded of trees or vegetation from forest fires. How sad!

We drove to the far end of the valley and found a parking spot at the trailhead to Mirror Lake.

The trail was almost three miles, but we had some company on the trail with a visit from one of the local residents who stopped by. The mule deer have such big ears, but their tail is much smaller than the White-Tailed Deer in the East.

Unfortunately, when we reached Mirror Lake there was very little water in it, nowhere near enough to reflect Half Dome or North Dome, which is what it is famous for.

 So we hiked back to the car and went searching for other icons to photograph.

Three Brothers (Eagle Peak the highest one 7,779 ft.)

El Capitan in all its glory (7,569 ft.).

Climbers come from all over the world journey here to climb this challenging sheer-sided granite edifice. It often takes climbers three days to reach the top.

Half Dome (8,836 ft.)

There were people climbing up the backside of it, using a steel cable to haul themselves up to the top.

In 1864, during the waning days of the American Civil War, Present Abraham Lincoln signed the bill that set aside the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Giant Sequoia Grove, nearly 50 years before the National Park Service came into existence. This park has been mostly protected by the State of California and or the federal government one way or another since then.

Lastly, we stopped to catch the grandeur of the valley from the Valley View Tunnel with a storm coming into Yosemite Valley.

We decided to leave the park at that point because Dad didn't want to drive on those narrow, winding mountain roads, with no guardrails, in a thunderstorm all the way back to Coarsegold, Ca where we are staying for the next few days. It is scary enough when the sun is out. A downpour would be very frightening.

Tomorrow we will be visiting a local landmark near Oakhurst, CA. Bass Lake will be the place for our next adventure😉.