Sunday, July 03, 2005
Family vacation notes: Yosemite, Days Two and Three
The TigerHawk California vacation continues apace, outdistancing my capacity to blog it. Even though it is Sunday, I'm still working on Thursday and Friday, and that's having skipped Los Angeles entirely.
In any case, we spent Thursday and half of Friday in Yosemite, and drove to San Francisco on Friday afternoon. Thursday we took a tour up to Glacier Point, which is the overlook 3000 feet or so above the floor of Yosemite Valley. The view from Glacier Point is to the north, directly across the Valley from Half Dome.
Looking down into the Valley, there is also an awesome view of Yosemite Falls from above. Yosemite Falls is the sixth highest waterfall in the world, and at 2,425 feet the highest in the United States. It runs off of melting snowfall, so it only flows in spring and early summer -- by August it will be a trickle and by the fall it will have run dry.
Having taken the bus and a picnic lunch to the top, we opted for the "walk" down. The path, advertised as the "four mile hike," was actually 4.8 miles in length and descended over 3000 vertical feet. The views were spectacular, but for this out-of-shape family the wear-and-tear on our various underutilized leg and butt muscles was a little much -- the adults, at least, woke up Friday and Saturday mornings progressively more sore, and have been waddling up and down the hills of San Francisco in no little discomfort.
The first vacation post included a couple of shots of Yosemite Valley looking east, from the "tunnel view," and here is the Valley looking west, from the climb down from Glacier Point.
That's the Cathedral on your left, and the edge of El Capitan on your right. Down on the Valley floor, you can see the thin blue ribbon of the Merced River. Here's the same view, more or less, from perhaps 1500 feet lower. You can see how El Capitan dominates everything once you descend into the Valley floor.
Friday was a travel day, but we did have time to walk over to the base of Yosemite Falls. It is an awesome sight to behold, discharging thousands of tons of water an hour down a cascade of almost 1/2 mile. 
Highlights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to come.
In any case, we spent Thursday and half of Friday in Yosemite, and drove to San Francisco on Friday afternoon. Thursday we took a tour up to Glacier Point, which is the overlook 3000 feet or so above the floor of Yosemite Valley. The view from Glacier Point is to the north, directly across the Valley from Half Dome.
Looking down into the Valley, there is also an awesome view of Yosemite Falls from above. Yosemite Falls is the sixth highest waterfall in the world, and at 2,425 feet the highest in the United States. It runs off of melting snowfall, so it only flows in spring and early summer -- by August it will be a trickle and by the fall it will have run dry. Having taken the bus and a picnic lunch to the top, we opted for the "walk" down. The path, advertised as the "four mile hike," was actually 4.8 miles in length and descended over 3000 vertical feet. The views were spectacular, but for this out-of-shape family the wear-and-tear on our various underutilized leg and butt muscles was a little much -- the adults, at least, woke up Friday and Saturday mornings progressively more sore, and have been waddling up and down the hills of San Francisco in no little discomfort.The first vacation post included a couple of shots of Yosemite Valley looking east, from the "tunnel view," and here is the Valley looking west, from the climb down from Glacier Point.
That's the Cathedral on your left, and the edge of El Capitan on your right. Down on the Valley floor, you can see the thin blue ribbon of the Merced River. Here's the same view, more or less, from perhaps 1500 feet lower. You can see how El Capitan dominates everything once you descend into the Valley floor. Friday was a travel day, but we did have time to walk over to the base of Yosemite Falls. It is an awesome sight to behold, discharging thousands of tons of water an hour down a cascade of almost 1/2 mile. Highlights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to come.
0 Comments:
