So as I was talking about before, I was camping at this outrageously priced campground. Today I found a nice National Forest campground which is only about 8 miles outside of the HW 120 Yosemite entrance and it's a heck of a lot cheaper. Sure, it doesn't have showers or a toilet that flushes, but I'm camping so it doesn't matter.
Yosemite is a big park! I didn't realize just how big it was until I started driving around it. I've put at least 400 miles on the car putting around the major roads. 400 miles at 35 MPH or less is a lot of time in the car. A lot of those miles was running up and down Glacier Point road. I headed up there Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening trying to get the perfect shot of the sun setting on Half Dome. I've been up and down that road so many times in the past few days I think I can drive it in my sleep. :) Sunday was the night though. There wasn't any stinking clouds blocking the sun, the crowds were mostly gone and Half Dome was glowing. It's amazing how solid granite looks so drab at high noon but get some evening light on it and it changes your perseption.
Another shot from Glacier Point. That's Nevada Falls on the right and the Siera Mountains in the back ground. You can hear the roar of the falls from way up there. It's 3000 feet or more down to the falls, so to hear them from up there is something. I can't wait to get to the base of them tomorrow to hear how loud they are up close.
One thing about driving in Yosemite, those California drivers who like to drive 80 MPH on their freeways sure change their driving habits on a high land switch back road... It's like they never have driven in the mountains before. It's funny stuff. Pretty much everywhere in Yosemite is either 25 or 35 MPH which I try my darnest to keep at. These California drivers will haul butt on the straight aways and get right on my tail. Then when we get into some corners I stay at the same speed I was going in the straight aways and they fall way behind. Damn city slickers... :)
Well lets see. I might as well post up a couple more pictures of what I've seen. There are these small little creeks running down the mountains pretty much everywhere you go. It's amazing how these little streams get overlooked by most people. Sure, a big ol' water fall looks cool in all, but you just can't get the details of falling water like a creek cascading down a mountain side.
So there's the small stuff for ya, now here's the big ones. Yosemite Falls is an amazing sight to see.
Another shot of Yosemite Falls from a different angle.
Well, I think I've over stayed my welcome at this joint I'm at, so I better wrap this up. My buddy Gary is driving in today. If everything goes well he should be up here around 9 or 10 tonight. I offered to meet him down in the valley so that he didn't have to drive so stinking far in one day, but he insisted on driving all the way up here. I need to get into a cell phone coverage area to call him.
We're going to stay here in Yosemite for a couple more days then it's off to who knows where. I'm thinking the Grand Canyon, but we'll see what Gary thinks.
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