Yosemite - Half Dome

Some views of Half Dome from Glacier Point;

Have you seen it yet?  Look closer;

 




There's two climbers on the face of Half Dome;

View of Half Dome from the valley floor;

Yosemite - Sentinel Dome

We decided to climb Sentinel Dome as from the top you get 360 deg view of the park and great views of the main Yosemite valley.  Not too steep until the last bit but worth the views when you make it

View across the valley to Yosemite Falls;

Jakki at the top (yes, despite the blue sky it was cold).

Note the waterfall (above the trees in this pic);

A few days after these were taken one of us was mad enough to climb to the top of these falls;

View towards the Sierras;

Patrick with Half Dome across the valley;

View of Yosemite falls;

You can see the upper and lower falls in this pic;

Close to the edge;

"Back a bit more";

Yosemite

The road into Yosemite from the south with the clouds over the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background and the fruit trees of the central valley in the fore.

As you get closer you can see the snow on the mountains;

Our first day hiking took us to a high 'alpine' meadow;

And down to a wobbly bridge over another freezing cold river;

A lovely place for a spot of lunch;

We should have brought books as we could have easily spent the whole day here, just sitting on the rocks watching the river...

Sequoia - More big trees

A small selection of the tree photos we took;

General Grant tree;

Feeling very small;

These next two were still alive despite being hollowed out by fires;

Split in the road;

This one was used as a shelter by loggers and then the US Cavalry for many years;

 

Fire damage;

Fallen Giants

Possibly the saddest part of Sequoia is the part of the park that used to be a timber and sawmill.

All of the Sequoias had been cut down leaving a 'grave-yard' of stumps.  

They must have cut down thousands of these giant trees.