Yosemite Valley and Tioga Road

Day 30   May 5, 2015

Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls

Bridalveil Falls

Since Jan and I had not visited Yosemite valley together, we went over for the day.  Our day started at a local restaurant for pancakes and French toast.  We had to have fuel, didn’t we?  The drive over brought us through the tunnel that overlooked the valley just a little after sunrise.   Since the sun rises from the far end of the valley the lighting on El Capitan was from behind it, the definition of it was not good.  We will have to return to this iconic location.  As we drove through the valley, we stopped at Bridalveil Falls for a short visit.  It amazes us how steep and solid the canyon walls are, then on down the valley and back to the visitor’s center.  On the way into the visitors’ center, we came upon the Ansel Adams gallery.   I think this might have been the first time I’ve ever seen some original photos by him, most I’ve seen have been copies.  He did an “acceptable” job printing the shots.  Another place we visited was the Ahwahnee Hotel. 

Ahwahnee Hotel

This is a beautiful hotel located at the base of one of the walls of the “Valley”.  Since we had heard of the Tuolumne Meadows and the Tioga Pass section of the park, we headed that way.  Monday, May 4 was the first day that this section of road had been open for the summer.  This road, mile for mile, is one of the most beautiful roads we have ever traveled.  There was overlook that allowed us to look at the backside of “Half Dome”.  One of the pictures shows people climbing the small dome before climbing the cable to the top of “Half Dome”. 

Backside of Half Dome--enlarge and look for climbers

Driving back into the valley before we headed home, we noticed that the afternoon light had changed the whole look.  So, as we drove up and out of the valley we came back to the “Tunnel View” site that we had started our day looking off.  It was a wonderful good bye to Yosemite.

Yosemite Valley as we left