We started out the day with a stop at Bridalveil Falls, and we were happy to see we'd beaten the crowds. We made the short walk out to the base of the fall and I got some gorgeous shots.
From there, we drove up to Glacier Point to take in the views, which were just stunning. In this shot, you can see the promontory of Glacier Point with the valley floor and Upper and Lower Yosemite falls in the background (view large - you can see the rainbow in Upper Yosemite Falls much better). From the other side, there was a fantastic view of Half Dome, with Clouds Rest in the background, and Vernal and Nevada Falls off to the side. (I had a VERY hard time choosing between this view and that one.) We had thought about hiking down Four Mile Trail, which starts at the top of Glacier Point, and over 4.6 miles, descends 3200 feet, but the buses weren't running to Glacier anymore at this time of year, so we ruled it out. I can hike DOWN 3200 ft, but forget the idea of hiking back up it! My poor flatlander legs would NOT have been pleased.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped off at Tuolumne Grove, one of the park's sequoia groves. It was towards the end of the day, so again there were very few people around, and we got to enjoy the trail without the crowds. As we walked back to our cabin, we found a doe grazing in our "front yard", if you could call it that. We had a glass of wine and watched the sun set, grabbed a pre-dinner s'more, and grabbed a seat at the bar so we could watch some football while we had dinner.
Shortly after, a mother and daughter came in and joined us at the end of the bar. We struck up a conversation, and we learned that they were from Colorado and they were out doing a 2 week mother/daughter tour of some of the parks. We had a blast chatting with them, and at the end of the night, they insisted on picking up our tab. I'm really not one to randomly strike up conversation with strangers, but they were so sweet and we had so much fun that it was definitely worth it.
I think viewing it large is mandatory! Wow - it's beautiful! How nice that you met some nice people from my state! Yep, that's how we roll here in Colorado... haha Good times!
