Mono Lake

An unusual yet scenic spot is Mono Lake, a salty lake.

The coolest thing at Mono Lake is the tufa formations that were created by the minerals in the water. They are great for filling up digital space on cameras, especially at sunset.

Yosemite Part 4

After leaving the gorgeous views of Yosemite Valley, we found more beautiful mountain scenery while crossing the northern part of the park on Tioga Road. Below is Tenaya Lake.

On Sunday we hiked to a smaller lake, Elizabeth Lake. It was nice, but the views at Tenaya were better, and Tenaya was right next to the road!

Even the scenery leaving the park is splendid! This is Ellery Lake, which we saw as we descended from the eastern side of the park.

Yosemite, Part 3--Bears!

After a fruitless quest to see a bear on our last western vacation, our dream was finally fulfilled--many times over! If you want to see bears, don't go to Yellowstone, go to Yosemite, Kings Canyon, or Sequoia. Their favorite hangout is the apple orchard near Curry Village (the cabins where we stayed). We first saw a bear cub jumping out of the road in Sequoia. Then when we drove into the parking lot at Yosemite after dark, we saw a bunch of rangers yelling and shining lights at a bear to scare it away. There were two more bears up in the trees, we learned. Later some of us saw more bears in the parking lot, down the aisle from our cabin, in the apple trees (see photo), and along the trail to Vernal Falls. These bears were not far away, either--we were standing right under the tree looking at this one. Jason saw 7 altogether. (More wildlife photos later.)

Yosemite, Part 2--Vernal Falls

We hiked to the top of this waterfall. Notice the rainbow. Above this fall was another small waterfall, and much higher up was a very large one--Nevada Falls, about 600 feet tall. In the spring the waterfalls are roaring with water, but at this time of year some have totally dried up, like Yosemite Falls, and the others are just a trickle compared with what they are in the spring.

Yosemite, Part 1

We spent 3 1/2 days in Yosemite, which was not nearly enough time to admire the beauty and enjoy the splendor of this wonderful place!

View of Yosemite valley--El Capitan is the vertical cliff on the left. Half Dome is the rounded bump in the distance (in the center of the photo).

Can you spot the two waterfalls in this picture? (Vernal Falls is the lower one and Nevada Falls is the upper one.) Later we saw them from below. See next post.

If you ever go to Yosemite, do not miss going to Glacier Point! The view is absolutely spectacular. Half Dome at sunset is an especially beautiful site. We took dozens of pictures of Half Dome from all angles, because it is very photogenic.

Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon National Park is also very scenic, with huge rock walls.

One of the waterfalls in Kings Canyon. We did not spend much time there because we had to move on to Yosemite!

Sequoias

We have been doing so much the past few days that it's hard to remember it all, but here are a few of the highlights.

At Sequoia National Park you can see the world's largest trees. They're so big it's hard to get a whole tree in a picture.

In addition to unbelievably large trees, Sequoia has great scenery. We climbed to the top of Moro Rock, where you can see a 360-degree panorama of the Sierras.