We slept in a bit (and no bears got us!) and decided we would spend most of today in the Glacier Point/Wawona area of the park. We headed to a trailhead which included two popular hikes: Sentinel Dome and Taft's Point. Sentinel seemed to be the better hike, so we did that first in case we were too tired for the second.
This was our first true hike in Yosemite, and it didn't disappoint. This hike was generally easy uphill until you reached the dome, where it was a pretty steep climb to get to the top. Once we got there though - WOW. I can honestly say I've never had a better view in my life and can't imagine there is a better view. There were true 360 degrees views of every highlight in Yosemite Valley: El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, Vernal Valls, Merced River, and snowcapped mountains as far as you could see. Pictures don't do it justice. We stayed up here about 30 minutes, had a snack, then headed down.
We had our picnic lunch in the car as we decided our next move. Lunch recharged us and we headed to the next hike on that trailhead: Taft Point. This was also a cool hike to a nice destination, but couldn't hold a candle to our earlier hike. However, we did enjoy seeing the fissures: very narrow cracks in the mountain, one which seemed to go down all the way to the valley floor. This was the first time we'd seen these. In total these two hikes were about 4.5 miles.
From there we made the short drive to Glacier Point. This was a very popular area as it has been a key viewpoint of the valley for well over 100 years. The views here were great as well - plus we got ice cream. Haley was disappointed with her choice of Snickers as she longed for my Oreo cone.
We were beat and we headed back to the Wawona campground for the night. We were in a different site, this one level but along the main road. For the second day in a row we sat by the river for about an hour, just taking in the scene. This spot had some nice rapids we enjoyed. Haley made Thai stir fry for dinner and we were in bed early after our long day.
Overnight we had campground pirates park next to us and play a movie until midnight. Since I was half-asleep, I didn't really realize what had happened until the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment