Exploring Yosemite Valley

We left the campground around 10:30 this morning to drive into Yosemite National Park.  The entrance is only 5 miles from the campground but Yosemite Valley which is where we were headed today is another 24 miles or about an hour away.

We passed through some of the area that had burned previously...

...and then we came to a vista where we could see the Big Meadow.  American Indians had used this area for thousands of years but in the 1800's, it became the center of activity for some of the first Euro-American settlers.

We continued driving up and then came to another vista and our first look at Half Dome.

As we drove a little further, we could see the Merced River running through the middle of Yosemite Valley.

As we entered Yosemite Valley...

...we saw Bridalveil Falls off to our right.

As we got closer to the Visitor Center, we saw Upper Yosemite Falls across the meadow...

...which was beautiful from many different perspectives.

We parked the car and walked to the Visitor Center.  Before getting information on hiking trails and what to see and do in the park, we watched two 30 minute movies about Yosemite in the Yosemite theater.  They were both good but I think we were starting to snooze a little bit by the end of the second movie.  :)

We picked up some information on hiking trails, etc. at the Visitor Center and then walked down to the Lower Yosemite Falls...

...where we could see the Upper Yosemite Falls again...

...as well as both of them as the same time.

Although Mariposa Grove is where the Giant Sequoias live, Yosemite Valley has some very tall trees too.

As we walked back to the car, we could see Half Dome in the distance.

We took a shortcut back to the car by crossing over this boardwalk that went across a marshy meadow (or rather a meadow that is marshy when it is wet).

As we looked back, we probably had our best view of Yosemite Upper and Lower Falls.

We found a picnic table and ate our lunch with Half Moon Dome in the background.  What a perfect place to eat lunch!

After eating our lunch and stopping by the gift shop, we began heading out of the valley and got one more look at Yosemite Upper and Lower Falls.

We're just so thankful that we have gotten to see the falls.  From what we have heard, the falls usually dry up in the summer.  There was a lot of water coming over them today!

We still had not seen El Capitan.  We stopped at the El Capitan picnic area where we could see it from the side.

We spoke with some rock climbers who were getting geared up to climb a smaller rock face near the parking area.  Then we drove on further where we saw a lot of people gathered out in a field looking up towards El Capitan.

We parked the car and walked over and realized they were watching people climbing El Capitan.  

We asked some of the people to show us where the climbers were.  These climbers had just gotten started.

Can you see them in the picture below?

                   

This gives you a better idea of how small the climbers are in relation to El Capitan.

                              

One couple helped Chuck find a climber who was almost near the top through their binoculars.  Once Chuck saw where the climber was, Chuck was able to find him on our camera.  The cliff face is about 3,000 feet.                          

The climber is in the red circle below.

The climber is in the red circle here also. The circle is so small because the climber is so far up!

Is this guy crazy or what???

We left El Capitan and began driving back to the campground.  We stopped one more time to say good-bye to Half Dome.

A great first day at Yosemite!