Yosemite National Park, California

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We arrived at the southern entrance to Yosemite about 9:15 am. For the first three nights are staying in this end of the park. Our campsite is at Wawona Village and it’s about 45 minutes (on winding road) from Yosemite Valley and all the scenic views. This location was all that was available when I made reservations in January. We spend 3 nights at Wawona, one night in a valley campground and 1 night near the northwest entrance to the park.
We decided to visit the Yosemite Valley Visitor’s Center first. We wanted to get our bearings, see what the crowds were like and find where things are located and how to get to them. Park maps confuse us (I overheard a person telling the Park Ranger the same thing). We parked at a day use lot and walked a ways to the visitor’s center (not all the shuttles are in service yet}. I signed up for a free photography class (sponsored by the Ansel Adams Gallery) held tomorrow morning. Frank found a geology talk he’ll attend while I’m doing photos.
After lunch we drove the main road and stopped for the views. It wasn’t overly crowded. We didn’t have any problems finding parking spaces. It was a relaxing afternoon. We looked up a lot. Granite mountains with streaming waterfalls surround the valley. We saw a number of sights; Upper and lower Yosemite Falls, Half Dome, Bridal Veil Falls, El Capitan, Ribbon Falls, and Tunnel View.
We were actually surprised we saw what we did. You have to figure out what you’re looking at. There’s road construction going on and what used to be 2 1-way roads is now 1 2-way road and the guidebooks aren’t setup that way. We tried to find a place to see El Capitan and finally parked and walked down a closed road toward it. There it was in front of the river with no crowds around it. There were some rock climbers hanging around on the road looking up (I didn’t see anything) and there were some college guys swimming in the Merced River (brrrr) and doing male bonding stuff. It was a good day.

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Photos

Yosemite Falls
The upper portion of Yosemite Falls is visible from many places in the valley.

Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls
The falls plunges 2425 feet in three sections.

El Capitan
This monolith guards the entrance to Yosemite Valley. It rises over 3500 feet above the Merced River.

El Capitan
It's thought to be the largest single block of exposed granite in the world.

Tunnel View
This is the view coming into the valley. El Capitan is on the left and Bridalveil Falls on the right.

Deb and Frank
We were there!

Drive-By Shooting
These 2 women drove up to Tunnel View; one stuck her cell phone out the sun roof, the other stuck her phone out the window - - took a picture and off they went. Nice way to enjoy the scenery.