Park 47: Yosemite National Park - Day 2

7/12/14. Day 2 in Yosemite Park started early. We drove in through Yosemite Valley, taking photos of the domes and cliffs in the morning sun.
We parked at the Yosemite Valley Visitor's Center and got a map of the shuttle system and our passport stamps.
Next we took the shuttle to the Nature Center at Happy Isles, enjoying the sarcastic humor from the bus driver who turned out to be from New Jersey: Commenting on the people entering the bus: "At this speed the water will all run out by the time we get to the falls!" We began the rather steep trail to Vernal Fall. The trail was rated as easy to moderate because it was paved, but it was quite steep and at this altitude (4-5,000 feet) we really huffed and puffed our way up. There was a lovely feeling of being in the woods with the loud running water below. The trail was crowded, but there was a nice feeling of companionship amongst us with people cheering each other up the hill.

After slowly reaching the view of the top of Vernal Fall, we headed back down and took the shuttle back to the visitor's center. Along the way, we saw a black bear on the side of the road that got all of us tourists quite excited. At the visitor's center, we had lunch and then watched a new Ken Burns film of Yosemite that was made for the 150th anniversary of the Yosemite Grant that created the park. We also viewed some of the exhibits and read about much of the unusual geography of the area.

We left early afternoon and went back to the car. We drove out of the valley, admiring more of the sights of El Capitan and the amazing scale of the valley walls and sheer cliff faces. Once again, we marveled at the beauty. There is truly no photo that can do this justice because you don't get the feeling of size. We were overwhelmed by the majesty of it all.

We headed north from the valley up the Big Oak Flat Road. The geography changed significantly as we drove through Crane Flat and Hodgdon Meadow. There were different kinds of granite, not as smooth, and different tree growth. There was a great amount of fire damage and we don't know if this was from planned fires or not. It was hard work concentrating on driving the steep curves with so many interesting views. We stopped at the Big Oak Flat Information Station, talked to the ranger about the area and got passport stamps.

We returned back down most of the way we came, stopping for more scenery along the way. We had an amazing view of the Half-Dome before leaving the park to return to our hotel. We arrived about 5:30 and had a rest and finished our puzzle before dinner at the hotel. Tomorrow will be a long day since we are planning to finish the northern Tioga Road and then head to Death Valley - so we went to bed early!