Thursday 15th May
Before you go any further, check out the new video on yesterday's page...
OK - on with today!
We decided to skip the painful breakfast experience by having cereal and juice in the room. At least nothing was lost.
Today's trip was back into the park and this time we wanted to head up to Glacier Point, which is a drivable (barely) route up to a rocky point 7124 feet above sea level with commanding views over the valley and the mountains around.
Weather was still good - the forecast was for some slight cooling but still no rain.
We've not experienced temperatures like those above, but then we're up higher than usual so it's cooler.
Our first stop was at the Bridalveil Falls waterfall. Disappointingly, the waterfall was upwind so all we pretty much saw was mist being blown down from the waterfall, making it very misty where we were - but very cooling.
On the road up to Glacier point, there's a big vista point which gives you views down the valley. Very impressive in the sunshine.
Then it was onward - another 15 miles(!) of twisty roads with sheer drops. We eventually got high enough to see some snow in shady corners.
The car temperature gauge kept fluctuating as we got higher or into sunshine - one minute 74' then 82' then 69'.
We finally got to the peak. I'm not sure how far you can see, but we could see Mt Lyell which looks to be over 20 miles away.
First thing though was to grab something to eat. We'd brought along a pack of crisps and some other bits. The packets were affected by the low pressure up here though...
We then took some photos before Linda found herself a shady area and read her Kindle whilst I wandered about and took more photos.
From up here we could see the Upper and Lower Yosemite falls that we visited yesterday.
By the end of the afternoon, I ended up just sitting, watching the clouds drift by...
Finally a couple of last photos before we moved on.
For the trip home we drove past our place and went on to the nearby (5 miles away) town of Groveland. It was founded in the gold rush era on the 1860s. It had plenty of wooden buildings still, including the place where we ate, the Iron Grill Saloon complete with swing-doors!
Food was nice and the inside was just missing the piano in the corner. It did have one odd thing to mention - the ceiling was covered with dollar bills. Very strange.
