Above Yosemite

Having spent yesterday in Yosemite Valley, today we started by spending the early morning at the top of Yosemite.  Glacier Point sits at the end of a long dead end drive 1km above the valley floor overlooking Yosemite village.  From Glacier Point a tremendous view stretches down Yosemite Valley and across to Half Dome and beyond.  It was a little hazy in places but still stupendous to enjoy the view in the early morning.

We saw some coyotes by the side of the road near Glacier Point.  They looked completely fearless of the car and probably (sadly) have worked out that the presence of humans mean food sources are nearby.  The parks preach strongly about the importance of keeping food away from the animals (especially bears) but obviously it's hard to secure everything.

We took a short 1 mile walk up to the top of Sentinel Dome, about 2 miles back along the one way road to Glacier Point.  This was our high point in the park (in altitude).  From the summit we could see even further back down the Yosemite Valley and over the bumpy tops of many of the parks granite domes.

After our scenic viewing, Elise and Sam retraced steps in the car stopping to have a look at the scenery as they drove back the way we came.

From the top of Sentinel Dome Eric walked the 10km (and over 1km down) back to the valley floor where we explored yesterday, Elise again kindly organising the car shuffle.  It was another of those crazy trails (eg Grand Canyon, Zion, Arches) not for people with vertigo.  Nevertheless there were plenty of people on the path - most surprisingly climbing up rather than descending.  

Although it was only lunchtime we decided that was enough sightseeing for one day.