snapshots abroad

9/9/26

Yosemite - Hiking the Upper Valley

Our time in the valley was over and so once again we packed up our campsite. After a stop for showers we took our time getting back on the road - we had a long day of driving ahead of us. We went to the Ansel Adams gallery and I bought a print by California artist Tom Killion. I saw a set of notecards with his art at the Valley visitor center and I was drawn to his woodcut print style. I'm really happy that I got to bring one of his pieces home.

After a stop for coffee we drove across the valley one final time and kept our eyes peeled for climb-spotters. A few cars were pulled over next to El Capitan so we joined in. The morning air was bright blue with picturesque wispy clouds. Up on El Cap was a tiny spec, possibly two tiny specs. Even from standing at the base of the mountain we were agog over how minuscule the climbers appeared.

Next, we headed back up to Glacier Point Road and made a parking spot a little ways from the Sentinel Dome trail. This short loop trail climbed about 400 ft and ended on top of its namesake. To date it's one of the highest peak hikes we've ever done, at 8,100 ft. By now we'd been in and all over the park for several days so the climb was very tolerable. From a distance the dome itself looked intimidating and sketchy to ascend but once we got to the final hill it was no problem.

We ate some lunch in the car and drove all the way back across the park and down to Wawona campground, our final location for this trip. It had been a long day in the car and out here it was even warmer than in the Valley. We went into town and picked up a few beverages at the convenience store and took advantage of the WiFi. Nearby is a park visitor center at Hill's Studio. English painter Thomas Hill had studio on the grounds of the Wawona Hotel and today the interior is decorated to replicate an artist's salon display. The former billiard room, now full of taxidermied species that are found in the park, appeared to be jusssst big enough for a billiard table and not much else!

When we returned to our campground for the evening we enjoyed some tasty local beer and relaxed in the shade with our books. Hans has been coming down with a cough on this trip and so during the night Hans went to sleep in the rental car so that he was not coughing on me or waking me up.

El Capitan and Cathedral Rocks

Oh, my chilly-willies!

Sentinel Dome, from the lead-up to the final ascent

From on top of this dome you are about 600 ft below the summit of Half-Dome

Telephoto view of the top of Half-Dome. Look at all of those tiny people!

There were lots of bossy ravens on the summit

Looking back towards El Cap

Hill's Studio on the Wawona end of the park

Milky Way view from our campsite

9/8/26

Yosemite - Hiking the Lower Valley

This morning I hustled over to the shower facilities and came back for a breakfast of oatmeal that I reinforced with a couple of scoops of peanut butter. We hiked the Vernal Fall trail. It gave us a workout as we steadily climbed to a bridge over the Merced River. Because it is early autumn, there wasn't much of a "fall" to see from the footbridge. From here it is optional to continue along the John Muir trail all of the way up to the top of Half Dome but we had other plans today. We turned around and hiked back to the bottom of the trail and turned north towards Mirror Lake. The seasonal lake was a dry bed today but the views were very nice nonetheless. If it weren't for the clouds of gnats that chased us for what felt like a quarter mile it would have been a very chill hike.

We had a little lunch back at the campground and then went for a meandering drive for the afternoon. We stopped at the well-known Tunnel View overlook and then climbed up to Glacier Point Road. Along the way we stopped for a "Bear Jam" of traffic and made our way gradually to the Glacier Point overlook.

In the evening we played some more of our tile game but the absence of proper camp chairs was starting to hurt both of us. The campground picnic tables are fine for short sits and not much else.

At sundown I took a camera and tripod over to the Merced River bed but a good distance off of the road and into the woods for some improved night photography conditions.

Vernal Fall hike

Mirror Lake trail

Mt. Watkins in the middle

Tunnel View

Bear!

9/7/26

Yosemite - The High Sierras

This morning we were quick to pack up and vacate our Hodgdon Meadows campsite. The roads through the park are long and winding. Since we were going to be camping in the Valley for the next two nights, we headed up to the higher elevation part of the park, stopping at Olmsted Point after sunrise. The short trail from the parking lot rewarded us with panoramic views of the upper portion of Yosemite Valley and the northern side of Half Dome.

We continued eastward and parked at Tenaya Lake. As we hiked the perimeter trail we saw people setting up to climb the nearby domes and we saw some people who had already gotten an early start on their ascent. The lake was nearly perfectly still and clear as could be. For most of the hike we encountered almost no other people. When we rounded back toward the park road there were several groups going for what looked like a refreshing swim and we saw some inflatable kayaks.

The Tuolumne Meadows was very beautiful but the wind was starting to pick up. We hiked up to an old Sierra Club cabin and took in the views of Cathedral Peak, Unicorn Peak, and Lembert Dome. This area sits at about 8,600 ft of elevation.

By this time my feet were starting to bother me. We went to the Tuolumne Meadows visitor center, a former Civilian Conservation Corps mess hall built in 1934, and I warmed my hands by the wood-burning stove.

It was a long drive back the way we came and down into Yosemite Valley. Hans took over driving and I nodded off in the afternoon sun. Coming down from the higher mountains took a long time and once we turned on to the main valley loop road we were blown away by our initial views of El Capitan and the surrounding cliffs.

When we checked into the Upper Pines campground we were taken aback by how warm it was compared to up in the high Sierra. The elevation is closer to 6,500 feet in the valley. To get our bearings we went to the commercial center of the valley and walked around the grocery store, visitor center, and smaller museums. I inquired about shower facilities and got the scoop from a Park Ranger.

In the evening we were pretty tired but I was anxious to take advantage of another potentially clear night of stargazing. Hans accompanied me to a parking lot facing Half Dome and if it weren't for all of the traffic from other cars and the park buses it would have been great. Watcha gonna do when you're in one of the most visited national parks on a major holiday weekend? Still, it was fun to watch the intermittent headlamps of climbers going up and down the peaks. We watched one particularly bright one slowly rappel down Mount Watkins.