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Published: April 24th 2014
El Capitan
I am not easily impressed...but this is impressive to view. Photos do not tell the story.The plan was to walk to Sentinel Dome, but snow and ice overnight meant they had closed the Glacier Point Road - bummer! So instead after some advice from a ranger, we decided to hike the Mirror Lake Loop.
It was supposed to be 2 hours, but in true Gary fashion we turned it into a 4 hour hike. Still, it was amazing...you just never get sick of craning your neck to see how high the surrounding peaks are. Mirror Lake had some ripples on it, but was still incredibly clear. It is interesting that Americans come to NZ and wax lyrical about our views, when they have this on their back doorstep. In my view, as beautiful as anything in NZ.
Thee was a heap of dung on the trail, at first we thought it was bear poo (freaked out certain members of the group) but turned out to be horse poo. Lots of treks through here I guess.
We were expecting big crowds, especially with it being Earth Day, but it was surprisingly manageable. We took the free shuttle around the valley floor, well worth it, came along every ten minutes and even if you have
to stand when it is full, still better than trying to drive and find a park.
Saw some deer, and squirrels...reminds you that this is a foreign country! Woodpecker noise gave Shiree and Jaime the heebie geebies for a bit until we figured out that it wasn't a bear sneaking up on us.
Mental note for anyone else thinking of coming here - Housekeeping Camp looks better than Curry Village and is located nicely, Ahwahnee if you can book it at a reasonable price is nice too.
Walked to the Lower Yosemite falls, the view is actually just as good from a distance, but great to tick that off too.
Had lunch at the Village Grill, nice american burgers and shared our table with an inquisitive squirrel. As with everywhere else in America, it had oversized cheap sodas (think fizzy) so we of course took advantage of that.
By the time we made it back to the Cedar Lodge in El Portal (25 minute drive) everyone decided just to have a spa and swim, then opened a bottle of bubbles and had a few beers....skipped dinner, which was a pretty easy decision!
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Annabel
non-member comment
WOW! Def on our to do list next trip....will keep eyes and ears out for bears too!