Yosemite National Park

I promised a post on our trip to Yosemite, so here it is. We took the entire week of April 1-7 off, since Kristin and Elizabeth were out of school. We left Sunday morning about ten a.m. and listened to conference in the car. By two o'clock, we were half-way across Nevada, and could not get a strong enough signal to listen to the afternoon session.
Our first stop was Virginia City, Nevada, an old silver mining town. Most of the town was closed due to it being Sunday, and about six o'clock in the evening. We still enjoyed the atmosphere of an old mining town. Mark Twain lived here for a few years, and published a newspaper. You can read his account in "Roughing It" (highly recommended).

We continued on to Lake Tahoe, where we spent Sunday night.
Monday, we explored Lake Tahoe. This is Emerald Bay, off the southwest side.
On the western side of the Sierra's we drove south along highway "49". It rolled through these green verdant hills past old gold-mining towns. Lizzy begged, and begged us to stop and have a picnic in one of the fields, but they were fenced off farms. So, we stopped in Pokerville, and bought some food.
Then, we found a little park in which to eat our lunch.
We came across this "gold mine", a used bookstore in Jackson. We came away with about twenty used books. We continued on to the Yosemite Valley, arriving after dark. We stayed in a nice resort outside the park. Tuesday we drove into the park, along the Valley floor.
Bridalveil Falls is the first large waterfall we encountered as we drove up the valley. There were several more waterfalls visible as well.
Lizzy and Kristin saluting "El Capitan".
Yosemite Falls from the bottom of the Valley.
With the Valley behind us, we were eager to begin our first hike.
Our first day in the park, we decided to hike "Four-Mile Trail" A trail that ascends the canyon 3,000 feet, and ends at Glacier Point where excellent views of the Yosemite Valley, Yosemite, Falls, and Half Dome reward the persistent hiker. Alas, we tired after 2 1/2 hours of switch backs. We received only spectacular views of the above sites. The steep hike back down tired our legs and feet, and we weren't much good for hiking after that.

Half Dome appeared in the Valley as we rounded a bend in the trail.
From the upper part of the trail we could see Yosemite Falls across the Canyon.

The next day, Wednesday, we drove to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequioas. We also spent Thursday in King's Canyon, and Sequioa National Parks, further experiencing these silent giants. They really are amazaing trees. You are in a forest of tall mature Ponderosa, and Sugar Pines, and then these giants appear. Their trunks are so large, that they feel surreal.
Lizzy and Kristin sitting in front of one of the Giant Sequoias. There are fences around most of the trees, so that traffic will not damage the roots, and weaken or kill the trees.
This cabin built in a grove of Sequioas, shows just how massive these trees are.
This is the "Fallen Tunnel Tree". A tunnel was cut out of it in the 1800's. People used to drive their horse-drawn wagons, and later their automobiles through it. In 1964, our family drove through this tree. It 1968, with a record snow fall, the weakened tree fell over, and is thus observed today. Because redwoods have a high amount of tannis in the bark and wood, they decay very slowly.
After a couple of hundred years, these trees reach their mature height of 250-300 feet, but continue to grow in girth.

On the way home, we drove through Death Valley National Park. It was a cool 104 degrees at sea level, on the valley floor. We spent the night in Nevada, then drove the rest of the way home on Saturday. We drove 2100 miles in 7 days. Next time, it would be nice to take a little more time and explore.