Yosemite National Park

Of all the places I visit in California, Yosemite National Park is by far my favorite and it calls me back every couple years.  I’ve always gone in the spring and have yet to see the high meadow because the roads are always closed owing to snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Current drought conditions in California did result in an early road opening in 2015, but I still managed to miss going up to Tuolomne Meadow.  Just wait.  One of these days I’m going to time it right.

So much has been written about the beauty of Yosemite that it seems hard to believe  the stories are really true.  Sounds like a lot of hype, doesn’t it?  But honestly, the valley is breathtakingly beautiful.

Pictures don’t do it justice.  How can one possible grasp the size of those granite cliffs?  I’ve stood at the base of El Capitan and tried to see the climbers on the face of it.  Even with binoculars I couldn’t spot them.  Yosemite Falls (they are a combination of Upper and Lower with cascade in between) roar throughout the valley.  They tower above one at a little over 2400 feet.  There’s a very accessible trail to the base of the Lower Fall, and a much less accessible trail all the way to top!

Actually the entire valley is easy to navigate.  Cars loop about it, and a free shuttle bus will get you to just about anywhere on the valley floor.  This is very handy if you plan to hike but don’t want to walk all the way across the valley to the trailhead.

Short walk from the Yosemite Lodge is the Swinging Bridge from which one can get an awesome sunrise shot of the Merced and the cottonwoods as the sun makes them glow.  We arrived very early and staked out a spot well before dawn.  Soon the bridge was full of photographers.  Oh, and if you do plan to wait for sunrise, take a blanket or tarp to sit on.  This is a plank bridge and invariably if you drop something it will find its way right between the cracks and into the water below.