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Yosemite

So onward to our final US National Park.  Yet another famous destination.  Yosemite.  Home of some of the worlds most famous big wall rock climbs.  Being low season we got a great deal on a hotel just outside the park in the small town of El Portal which gave us a few days to explore without the necessity of excessive driving.

Day 1 we headed into the park without much of a plan.  After a few roadside stops by the river we reached Bridal Veil Falls (a popular name for a waterfall in the USA we have discovered!).  It's low season for waterfalls in Yosemite but enough water was flowing to make for some attractive photos.  Eric and Samuel rock scrambled up the lightly flowing creek beyond the end of the trail while Elise waited behind (we weren't doing anything forbidden, just ignoring lots of warnings about the dangers of slippery rocks).  The extra scramble was so much fun Samuel wanted to return the next day for more.

Not far from the falls we stopped to admire a great view of the famous rockface of El Capitan.  This huge vertical fwall of granite almost 1km high has hosted the worlds best climbers for many years.  We would take a close look in the afternoon driving back down the northern side of the Merced River, however from the other side of the valley it was an impressive sight.

Sentinel Beach on the Merced River was a nice point to view some fall colours.

After lunch at Yosemite Village it was on to the free park shuttle.  We did a couple of short walks.  The best one was to Mirror Lake.  Although the lake was completely dry, it was a good point to view another famous cliff - Half Dome.  From Mirror Lake, rather than bussing it we decided to walk most of the way back to the Park Headquarters where we had left the car.  The walk was enjoyable through some nice open forest down the northern side of the main valley.

Yosemite Falls were completely dry so we satisfied ourselves with a quick look without going down (or up) the trail.

Finally we stopped to have a closer look at El Capitan.  Eric walked right up to the face which is pretty amazing.  The forest just ends in a sheer wall rising up 1 kilometer.  Both at the base and from the carpark we could see climbers as tiny dots on the huge rockface.



We quite enjoyed our (longish) day in the park and went home somewhat tired but happy.



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