Yosemite Spring 2017

We were in Santa Barbara for a few days at the end of March and decided that Yosemite National Park would be just a short detour on the way home. This wonderful wet winter that we have been enjoying has closed a few entrances to the park, so the short detour was a little longer than we planned and snow was still present on the valley floor, but we had a camping reservation thanks to Peter so we enjoyed a brief but spectacular visit.

Our first stop in the park was at Bridal Veil Falls.

 And I am sure that chunk of granite behind us has a name, but I don't know what it is.

After we checked in at our campsite we walked to the trail head for the Mist trail and Calvin pointed out that he will be on this very same John Muir trail next summer.

The Mist trail climbs up 1000 feet to the top of Vernal Falls and then another 900 feet to the top of Nevada Falls.  I opted to hike to a spot where I could see rainbows and the top of Vernal Falls.  Calvin climbed to the top of Nevada Falls, but he didn't have a camera so we only have rainbow pictures.

Amazingly we did manage to reconnect on the way down the hill.

The campground was a still cleaning up from the winter and because it was cold there was serious smoke pollution from the campfires, but it was fun. We saw snow in the shady spots and big stacks of trees everywhere that had been cut down and were waiting for the road to open so they could be hauled out.

After a hearty camp dinner that Calvin chose consisting of a lot of cookies and chips, we joined the rest of the photographers for sunset pictures of Half Dome.  It never fails to impress.

The next morning we took a gentle accessible trail to the bottom of Lower Yosemite Falls.  More rainbows.

This gives you an idea of how big the falls are. Those are really big boulders that came tumbling down.

A pretty spectacular place right in our own back yard...more or less.