We arrived late on Friday for Labor Day weekend. The campgrounds close to the valley were full and it was almost midnight when we found a spot at Yosemite Creek, down a 4-mile dirt road. We were relieved.
The next morning:
We planned to do the tourist circuit in the valley, see the major sights and do some easy hiking. We slept in and took our time on Saturday, and after a hour of driving, arrived in the valley around noon.
First stop: Bridalveil Falls with a trickle of water left, but just enough.
We played around on the rocks below, but they were too slippery, having been polished by millions of tourist shoes.
So Leilani got her wish, and we stopped to play in the stream further back along the “trail.” You have to look closely at this picture:
We found parking near Curry village and got supplies (the only things we didn’t have in our well-packed car were chocolate ice cream and firewood). Nearby were some very unafraid deer–our first Yosemite “wildlife:”
Andy looked at a map and found an easy afternoon hike to Mirror lake. First we took a shuttle bus (which Leilani loved), then we walked on the old road. As soon as we could, we got on a trail. In the background to the left here is North Dome, but before we knew the name, Leilani said it looked like a volcano (which it did) so Andy called it Volcano Dome. But then Leilani said it looked like a birthday cake (which it didn’t) so she called it Birthday Cake Dome.
Mirror Lake, with the Watkins Pinnacle (I think):
Next to Mirror lake was a garden of cairns, I suppose so people can satisfy their urge to leave a cairn in Yosemite, without having stacked rocks all over the park. Some were really impressive:
Next to Mirror Lake, which was starting to look like a mud puddle in places, there was a wide spot in the river which was perfect for Leilani to swim. She had been looking forward to this all day, no matter how cold the water was.
Nearby was a beach, too. She was very happy to spread out her towel and lay in the sun:
And all around was a spectacular view of the valley, here looking up at Half Dome:
By the time we got back to the road, the sun was getting low, creating beautiful colors:
Driving out of the valley, we had to stop to look at El Capitan. Andy spotted the climbers, and Sonja’s new zoom lens got the picture:
The second image is a separate zoomed photo, not an enlargement of the first. But the rectangle shows where the climbers are located. They have a porta-ledge tied to the rock for sleeping on. This being a popular weekend, there were other climbers on the cliff as well.
