Actually this happened on Sunday, post wedding full-day tour of Yosemite....
Started out with a lengthy drive over to Glacier Point, wonderful panoramic views of the park....
Next the actual "training" -- an assault on Sentinel Dome (
route).
I must point out that of all the peaks climbed during the weekend by various folks attending the wedding, I belief we can claim the highest, a little over 8K, certainly higher then the assault that Ross and Alex and others made on North Dome that took them 9 hours. Our round trip time was about 45 minutes, including 15 minutes or so hanging out at the summit. Though I suppose they did start a little lower.
It was actually pretty cool. Neither of us was interested in anything strenuous, but the dome was there and wanted to be done. Found a spot as close as I could on the road, figured we could bushwhack over, and lo and behold there was an old road going right where we wanted. Not that the bushwhacking would have been hard, the terrain was quite lovely, just waiting for an O' map to be made....
Back to the car, headed for the Mariposa sequoia grove, but first a stop to cool off....
Looked fine, but was it ever cold (notice that Gail has only one foot in). Brought back memories of a day in Alaska 17 years ago, a stream coming right out of a snow field, I offered something tasty (a Snickers bar?) to anyone who could stand in it for a minute, a prize claimed easily by Jim Baker, despite the fact that I took 3 or 4 minutes to count off supposedly one minute. The man has no pain sensors.
And then off again, but soon a quick stop to check out a bear....
And then finally to the sequoia grove, and the trees were really quite something (this is just an average size one)....
And of course the root stock (see yesterday's post) was superb, couldn't help but think of Valerie and her tiny little specimen.
And then on the way back to the car I thought it might be a good idea to see if there were any interesting birds to be seen, and no more than a minute later I heard a little noise and looked up and there was a female black-backed three-toed woodpecker, fabulous.
By now it was getting to be late afternoon, time to check out the main Yosemite valley, the light was now perfect...
including a short walk to Bridal Veil Falls....
and some more looking around, and then the drive back to Evergreen Lodge where we were staying, just outside the park. One last pleasant surprise, the park fee had been $20, covered 7 days for both of us, but there had also been a sign mentioning a deal for those 62 and older. So I asked on the way out. Yup, $10, and this gave you a *lifetime* pass good to any national park or other facility, plus anyone traveling with you. So I got one of those, plus a refund of $10. :-)
Such a fine day, a side-benefit of the wedding. Glad we had the chance.