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| enlarge to see the climber |
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| El Capitan' |
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| Crew of 3 climbers |
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Yosemite! The name itself puts a picture of untouched, peaceful, panorama in your head. You honestly do not need to say more than its name to envision the beauty. Yosemite National State Park, what a wonderful place.
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| Bridal Vail Falls |
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| half dome from the beach |
We spent a full day in the park. I imagined it to be along the lines of Yellowstone National Park. It is not. It is the exact opposite. Yellowstone offers vast meadows of buffalo and antelopes. Yosemite is vast rock formations. Yellowstone is hot springs and geysers. Yosemite is cliffs and rock climbers. Although they are both pleasant to look at, they are completely different. Yosemite, along with many other National Parks that we have visited, is simply gorgeous.
We started out at El Capitan’. Ahwahneechee is the Indian name for this rock. The legend goes like this. As two bear cubs slept on a flat rock near the river, the rock grew and grew until finally the bears scratched their faces against the moon. The mother bear called on all the animals to help rescue her babies, but none succeeded, until the lowly inchworm (tutakanula) crawled slowly to the top and led the cubs back down to safety.
It is an almost a shear face rock that is famous for rock climbers. Made up of mostly granite it can withstand millions of years of erosion and glacial deterioration. It stands approximately 3000 tall. We saw a team of three on the east end of the south side climbing. And a single man, which was surprising, on the west end of the south side was also taking the challenge of scaling the massive rock. The south side is the side mostly climbed. The rest of the rock is for hikers. It takes an average of 3 full days to reach the summit. It is grueling, strenuous and a physical challenge that few can endure. It is beautiful.
From there we went to the Bridal Vail Falls. The water descends 617 feet to the bottom. The Ahwahneechee tribe believed that the falls were the home of a vengeful spirit, Pohono. Pohono, which means; Spirit of the Puffing Winds, guarded the entrance to the valley. Those leaving the valley must not look directly into the waterfall or they will be cursed. They also believed that inhaling the mist from the falls would improve the chances of marriage. At the bottom, where you can walk up to, there are signs posted NOT to climb on the rocks because of fatalities. Did that stop us, you ask? HA! NO! We had on really good hiking boots and were prepared. The falls are beautiful and the rocks are slippery but all in all, we were glad to pose for pictures.
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| Vernal Falls |
After the falls we stopped at an information booth along our travels, because we could not get a good view of Half Dome from the road. The park ranger advised us to head towards a beach where we would be very pleased with the view. (See pictures). It was beautiful. Amazingly beautiful!
Half Dome stands at 8842’ feet above sea level and is not climbed. You can hike up to the ‘rock’ park but it will take you at least 12 hours up and back. It is a very hard hike. Uphill the entire way, at a grade of 11 degrees the entire way. Experience hikers only! We did not even attempt it! LOL.
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| blurry but this is where 4 people fell |
After taking many photos and stopping for lunch, we headed up to Glacier Point. This was a full one hour drive up the mountain. We ascended 3800 feet, driving. Along the way we encountered two coyotes. Very cute, very docile. We got out of the truck and snapped away with the camera. They approached us so closely that I did not have to zoom in on some pictures at all. They were young and curious.
Continuing on we accomplished to reach the summit. What a view! You can see Half Dome, El Capitan‘, and two other water falls from this location. Extraordinarily beautiful. One of the water falls you can see is called Vernal; it falls 317 feet and this is where 4 people plummeted to their demise last month. There are signs all over the place that state it is perilous and NOT to exceed the boundaries. It is very distressing, not only for the victims of the catastrophe, but for the bystanders who observed it. Yes, Tommy and I sometimes do not follow the rules, but we know when enough is enough.
The second waterfall you can see is called Nevada falls. Its water cascades down 597 feet. Both waterfalls are astonishing.
We had an hour drive back down the mountain and another hour drive to the camper from the park. I napped on the way home. It was a very physical day for both of us. We still did not have Internet or TV service so we, once again, watched Walk the Line. (I do not imagine we will ever, ever, get tired of that movie).
Nonetheless, we left Merced this morning and made it down to Lancaster, just outside of LA. Tomorrow we will be in Palm Springs with Jackie and Jim. I'm confident it will be a great weekend! Thanks for reading
We spent a full day in the park. I imagined it to be along the lines of Yellowstone National Park. It is not. It is the exact opposite. Yellowstone offers vast meadows of buffalo and antelopes. Yosemite is vast rock formations. Yellowstone is hot springs and geysers. Yosemite is cliffs and rock climbers. Although they are both pleasant to look at, they are completely different. Yosemite, along with many other National Parks that we have visited, is simply gorgeous.
It is an almost a shear face rock that is famous for rock climbers. Made up of mostly granite it can withstand millions of years of erosion and glacial deterioration. It stands approximately 3000 tall. We saw a team of three on the east end of the south side climbing. And a single man, which was surprising, on the west end of the south side was also taking the challenge of scaling the massive rock. The south side is the side mostly climbed. The rest of the rock is for hikers. It takes an average of 3 full days to reach the summit. It is grueling, strenuous and a physical challenge that few can endure. It is beautiful. 
From there we went to the Bridal Vail Falls. The water descends 617 feet to the bottom. The Ahwahneechee tribe believed that the falls were the home of a vengeful spirit, Pohono. Pohono, which means; Spirit of the Puffing Winds, guarded the entrance to the valley. Those leaving the valley must not look directly into the waterfall or they will be cursed. They also believed that inhaling the mist from the falls would improve the chances of marriage. At the bottom, where you can walk up to, there are signs posted NOT to climb on the rocks because of fatalities. Did that stop us, you ask? HA! NO! We had on really good hiking boots and were prepared. The falls are beautiful and the rocks are slippery but all in all, we were glad to pose for pictures.
After taking many photos and stopping for lunch, we headed up to Glacier Point. This was a full one hour drive up the mountain. We ascended 3800 feet, driving. Along the way we encountered two coyotes. Very cute, very docile. We got out of the truck and snapped away with the camera. They approached us so closely that I did not have to zoom in on some pictures at all. They were young and curious.
Continuing on we accomplished to reach the summit. What a view! You can see Half Dome, El Capitan‘, and two other water falls from this location. Extraordinarily beautiful. One of the water falls you can see is called Vernal; it falls 317 feet and this is where 4 people plummeted to their demise last month. There are signs all over the place that state it is perilous and NOT to exceed the boundaries. It is very distressing, not only for the victims of the catastrophe, but for the bystanders who observed it. Yes, Tommy and I sometimes do not follow the rules, but we know when enough is enough.
