Yosemite Valley was carved by glaciers millennia ago. Mostly it’s fairly square, with numerous waterfalls plummeting off the edge.
Half-dome peak is on the left.
By the road leading to Glacier Point, shortly after I spent the night in the forest there.
Yosemite falls are the highest in the US, if I remember rightly. They fall in four stages.
I had enormous fun jumping between the rocks at the base of the falls. Rock-hopping was the only way to reach the pool beneath.
Few made it even this close, because a strong wind blew freezing spray, and the rocks were slick and treacherous.
These falls awaited trekkers after an hour walking ever upwards by the beautiful river in the preceding photograph. The last section of the trail rises through the Mist Valley, so named because the spray from the falls makes it permanently misty, supporting a thriving mini-rainforest. A very steep path with ladders leads up the cliff to the right, and at the top lies Emerald Pool, a glorious green pool about 50 m across. It’s very cold, but you can swim if you’re brave enough. At the top of Emerald pool is another excellent waterfall, and beneath it the ‘slipway’ – a 40 ft section of smooth rocks across which the water sprays at high speed into Emerald Pool. Although dangerous, this is the ultimate place for water sliding for the super-brave. Climbing the mist valley falls to see Emerald Pool is a must.
At one end of the valley, Glacier Point rises about a mile high and commands views over most of the valley and surrounding peaks. In a bygone era, they’d push a burning mass of logs over the edge every week, producing a spectacular ‘firefall’ that took about 11 sec to reach the ground, providing endless beautiful photographs. It was later stopped for environmental reasons.
Glacier Point is the ultimate place to see the sun set. Unfortunately I arrived in the twilight, but I did get to see the twinkling lights of all the campgrounds in the valley a mile below. Then I camped in the forest nearby to see the sun rise the next morning, keeping both ears open for hungry bears.
And what did I discover the next morning? Seven hang-gliders lined up ready to jump off the edge! Several of the guys looked fairly terrified and had to spend 10 mins psyching themselves up before the drop. They had to balance on a precarious slope between low trees and rocks, attached to their gliders, trying to avoid wind gusts that could kill them if they lifted them off prematurely. I got a sequence of about 10 photos of them gliding out over Yosemite Valley. They really had the ultimate ride.
That tiny white dot in the lower middle is a hang-glider, 30 mins out. They landed somewhere in the meadows below.
Guys able to hold a decent conversation must be very rare in America, because after spending about two hours walking with these Jewish girls, the one on the left proposed that I marry the (very shy) one on the right. All I had to do was “get my head rearranged by the rabbis.” They were very nice but I politely declined, fearing the religious differences might be overwhelming :)
On the edge of the Yosemite area is a forest of Giant Sequoias. These can grow to 4-5,000 years old and are the world’s oldest known living creatures.
Like the California Redwoods, they are eventually toppled by their massive weights. They need sheltered valleys to grow in, without too many tourists walking and driving over their roots! A 20-foot fence surrounded the base of Old Colonel – probably quite inadequate, but a at least a start.
