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Published: October 12th 2008
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Upper Yosemite valley
Half Dome from the back side, looking down into the upper end of Yosemite valley. Laura is back on the journal today. We woke up and the water faucet for the campsite was frozen solid. Cold, cold, cold! I am in 4 layers up top and 2 layers on the bottom + a wool hat and gloves. People are huddled over their fires and mugs of coffee this morning. We're huddling over our oatmeal. During breakfast we saw 5 mule deer wander along the river by our campsite. They didn't hear us and we were able to watch them awhile. We also saw a Stellar's Jay - a puffy black and blue bird - whose feathers were shiny and very pretty when it opened its wings.
Drive to Yosemite Valley
The drive from the meadows to the valley is a little over an hour long and takes us through a lot of the lava dome area in the park. All the domes were formed by bubbles of lava that formed granite deep in the Earth's crust. Erosion washed everything else away and left the granite. Glaciers further smoothed the bubbles and formed the large domes and rock faces found in this area of the park. Craggy peaks mean that the glaciers did not reach that area (and thus
El Capitan
We didn't see any climbers during the day but saw their lights at night (stoves, etc.). those mountains were not smoothed over). The skies in Yosemite are very blue due to the elevation. There are no clouds and the temperature is heating up quickly. It was well below freezing at night but it has reached 60° F by 10:45. At one point on our drive we are able to see down into the Yosemite valley from the upper end (the backside of Half Dome and Cloud's rest). Greg spotted a few hikers climbing up the cable ladders that led to the top. Along the road there are various signs with a red bear on them. This is where people have hit and killed a bear on the road just during this year. There are quite a few bear signs! The drive to the valley took us through a lot of elevation changes. Our campsite is just under 8500ft but Yosemite valley is at 4500ft.
Yosemite Valley
During the drive into the valley town we passed by El Capitan which is the largest granite face in the world and is over 350 stories high. However, our campsite is higher in elevation than the peak of all the mountains ringing the valley! In the town we stopped at the Ansel
Yosemite Valley
The popular picture parking area was under construction so Laura had to snap this one quickly. Adams gallery and looked at the art. We also dropped off a few post cards and got Laura her National Parks stamp for her book. So far we have gotten the stamp from each park that we've visited and some parks have multiple stamps for each region (Yellowstone had 7-8 different stamps). We grabbed lunch and then headed down to the south end of the park to see the giant sequoias.
Mariposa Grove
After a 45 minute drive we reached to grove of Giant Sequoias. The trees can only grow in very specific conditions (elevation, moisture, and temperature) and are not related to the coastal redwoods. In each grove there are other trees: ponderosa pine, sugar pine, western white pine, and western red cedar. Some of these trees were very large as well. However, the largest branch on the oldest sequoia was still larger than these other big trees. We visited a few of the trees in the lower grove and there were many blow-downs on the trail. When the sequoias fall they shatter into many small pieces (the wood is not very strong). This is the main reason why they are still around... the timber companies could not harvest the trees
Upper grove
The upper grove was very quiet and there were not many people in the area. without them shattering. A lot of the trees had fire scars toward the bottom. The fires are required for the trees to procreate (blows the pollen up into the pine cones / seeds). The bark on the sequoias is 8"+ thick at least and it is very light / pithy which prevents the fire from spreading. When Greg thumped the tree it sounded hollow due to the bark's density. We looked at the map and decided to hike up to the upper grove which was supposedly only 400ft of climbing and 0.5 miles. After hiking for 15 minutes we saw the next sign which said 0.7 miles to the upper grove! The maps and signs for the trail system because I guess they never thought anyone would hike up (only down). It turned out that we climbed over 1000ft and 2.5 miles in each direction. There is a shuttle to the top (it's pricey) so that's why we hiked. I had to pee very badly and was ready to head back down the trail to the parking lot instead of climbing up to the bathroom in the upper grove. Greg kept telling me that it was just around the next
Sequoia root ball
Here's one of the trees that blew down. Note the small roots (for a 300ft tall tree). corner (less than a 1/4 mile) while the hike back down was at least 2 miles long. We finally got there and went to the "museum". This was an old hut with no lights and a few exhibits (which you couldn't read due to the lack of lighting). However, we did learn that it takes 20-30 years for a sequoia's pine cone to mature (and usually needs the help of a squirrel to fall down). 1 of every million seeds will grow to become a giant sequoia. We headed back down the trail and got to the car without too many problems. Greg wanted to run down the trail yelling "Bees!" and see what people's reactions would be.
Glacier Point
Greg took me to glacier point to see the sunset and see if we could do any star gazing. We lucked out because there was a ranger presentation for both the sunset and the stars. Greg had to step away from the 1st presentation to chat with his Dad who had just completed the Appalachian Trail. There was an hour or so gap between the chats so we had time to eat dinner (cold spaghetti) and add a couple of layers
Half Dome
This is Half Dome from Glacier Point. We got to see the changing colors during the sunset which was very pretty (reds, purples, oranges, etc.). because it was getting COLD. We both brought our binoculars and a few heavy blankets so we could lie on the ground during the star talk. The ranger was great and used a lot of metaphors for describing the various constellations. Sagittarius looks like a teapot (rather than 'the hunter'). We were able to see multiple constellations, Jupiter, and 2 galaxies... all with the naked eye! The ranger had a powerful green laser pointer which made a very clear beam to the stars... it made pointing things out extremely easy! Greg was able to spot 3 of Jupiter's moons through his binoculars. We were also able to see the Andromeda galaxy very clearly through the binocs. Andromeda is wider than the moon (visually) and is quite easy to spot if you know where to look. There was no need for flashlights because the stars were so bright. The whole chat was extremely relaxing and enjoyable... definitely one of the highlights of our trip! After the chat we had an hour+ drive back to the campsite and we collapsed into bed.
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