Daily Archives: September 18, 2014

September 18, 2014 Yosemite National Park Part 2

On our next visit to the park we decided to drive to Glacier Point.  As I said before, it is quite a drive to get anywhere in the park and this was two hour drive each way from the campground, but well worth the effort.  Glacier Point gives a panoramic view of Yosemite Valley and Half Dome.  There is a paved walkway which takes you to various lookout points with views 3,214 feet down into the valley.  It was really neat to look at the park from above and see the roads we had traveled and bridges we had crossed.

A viewpoint at Glacier Point

A viewpoint at Glacier Point

Half Dome as viewed from the Glacier Point viewpoint

Half Dome as viewed from the Glacier Point viewpoint

The valley below Half Dome

The valley below Half Dome

The Yosemite Valley as viewed from Glacier Point

The Yosemite Valley as viewed from Glacier Point

Half Dome

Half Dome

Half Dome is 8,842 FT

Half Dome is 8,842 FT

Beautiful Half Dome

Beautiful Half Dome

Zoomed view of Half Dome with several people that hiked to the top

Zoomed view of Half Dome with several people that hiked to the top

Zoomed view of North Dome and Basket Dome

Zoomed view of North Dome and Basket Dome

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Yosemite National Park is known for its waterfalls, and we had been warned in other blogs that the waterfalls in the park were dried up due to the severe drought as well as late summer heat.

In the spring Yosemite Falls runs off the mountainside

In the spring Yosemite Falls runs off the mountainside

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Nevada Falls in upper right and Vernal Falls in lower left

Nevada Falls in upper right and Vernal Falls in lower left

317 FT Vernal Falls blowing in the wind. Those are people in the pool below.

317 FT Vernal Falls blowing in the wind. Those are people in the pool below.

594 FT Nevada Falls

594 FT Nevada Falls

The best time to see the waterfalls is late spring/early summer, and we hope to someday return earlier in the year to Yosemite.  From our viewpoint at Glacier Point we were surprised and delighted to see two waterfalls far in the distance; Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls, with a little water still flowing.

IMG_2453 IMG_2447 While in Yosemite we were saddened to hear of the devastating wildfire which swept through the town of Weed, California.  You may recall this sweet little town was our home base for 4 days over Labor Day while we visited Mount Shasta.  This town was where we found the geocache on the totem pole at the beginning of the Alaskan Highway, and also near the metal sculpture garden memorial to those who served our country.  From the news reports the fire was very devastating and the town will have a long road to recovery.  Also during our stay in Yosemite we heard of wildfires near Lake Tahoe which we had visited just a week before.  One of the campers in our campground in Yosemite told us they had just left Lake Tahoe and had to drive a different route out because some of the roads were closed.  We also closely followed reports of wildfires on our current projected route out of Yosemite to Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park.

We hope that this video link below made from Glacier Point will be easy for you to view.

http://youtu.be/98ZIpWStoVk