And the breakfast spread certainly did not disappoint. Our hosts, John and Pamela, provided a nice breakfast buffet that consisted of fresh fruits, bread, bagels and cereal. They also chatted with us throughout breakfast. The inn had three rooms and was fully booked that weekend that we were there. But we were the first couple to up for breakfast (and we were also the last couple to return to the inn the night before) so it looked like we were making the most of our visit.
After breakfast, we drove back to Yosemite Valley. While the inn was only a very short distance to the southern entrance of the National Park, it was still a 30 minute drive from the park entrance to the valley itself. This drive was a marked contrast to our first drive to the valley yesterday. Instead of a overcast, rainy and cold day, we had a beautiful sunny and cloudless blue sky day. Everything seemed so different under these much more favourable conditions.
We noticed that the snow fall from the previous night was still on the ground at certain parts of the drive into the valley. We drove around the valley and stopped at various photo and look out points to take photos of the neverending beauty of this valley. The valley itself is not very big but there were many stops.
Some of the landmarks we stopped by to admire and photograph on this morning were Cathedral Rocks, El Capitan, Bridalveil Falls and Yosemite Falls. There are thousands of waterfalls in the national park and you cannot get enough of the magnificence of the display of seeing gallons of water cascading off rocky cliffs.
After photographing the falls from a distance, we eventually parked the car near Sentinel Bridge which was a central location to many of the attractions in the valley and we decided to walk around for the rest of the day. We stopped for a brief lunch at the Yosemite Village (burgers) before exploring the valley on foot.
From Yosemite Village, we walked to the Lower Yosemite Falls (see below). As we entered the region near the falls, it was noticeably colder and there were a lot of unmelted snow lining the various creeks that flowed from the falls. The Lower Falls were flowing at full volume and we decided to put on our ponchos for some weather protection after the soaking we received the previous day when we visited the Bridalveil Falls. But of the hundreds of people at the falls, we were the only ones wearing ponchos. After a while, we decided to take ours off so as not to stick out like sore thumbs.
Photographing around the Lower Falls (see below) was challenging because of the strong spray coming from the falls and from the crowd that was at the falls. Yvonne remembered her previous to the same falls five years ago during summer and the falls were all but a small trickle. What a huge difference a different season makes !
From the Lower Falls, we walked back out towards the valley and we walked across the Sentinel Meadows where we were treated to a beautiful view of Half Dome. On the other side of the meadows were the Cathedral Rocks with a picturesque chapel in their shadow. We finished our walk around the valley at Sentinel Bridge where photographers typically gathered to photograph the Half Dome during sunset.
Unfortunately, by late afternoon, a lot of clouds rolled in and our blue sky day was no more. After waiting for half an hour at Sentinel Bridge, we decided that today's sunset was not going to much of a sunset after all and we packed up and headed by to the car. As we drove towards Curry Village for dinner, we passed by a meadow with a beautiful panoramic view of Half Dome and North Dome and we pulled over for another photo opportunity (see below).
After the last shots of the day, we had dinner at Curry Village. The buffet dinner was surprisingly cheap and it wasn't too bad. After dinner, we drove back to the inn. At the inn, we decided to layer up on warm clothing and we headed out to see the stars from the balcony. And what an amazing sight it was. We stayed out there for 20 minutes or so but we had to retreat to our room as it was getting way too cold outside despite our many layers of clothing. Thus, ended another amazing day at Yosemite.
Every photo is so "picturesque" like postcards!!! Since I have never been to Yosemite before, thanks for sharing the magnificant views. I must take Mom there sometimes since the 2 of us are the only ones who haven't been there before.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sandy ! The photos that Yvonne took with her camera are really good as well. She hasn't uploaded those photos.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean? Maybe Sandy is referring to my photos in the slideshow! :P
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