Yosemite National Park is a pretty incredible place for a number of reasons but just in case you might not otherwise be impressed, this is first view you will likely have of the valley when driving in. This is actually not the first view we had of the valley but we'll get to that shortly. Most of the lodges, campgrounds and such are located here in the main valley.

We stayed outside the park in Oakhurst, California because we came in August and had about two weeks advance notice we were doing this. If you enter the park from the south, the first point of interest is the Mariposa Grove of Sequoias. Here are a few now.

This is a pleasant and easy hike through a mostly flat grove (especially compared to some of the difficult hikes in the park). Some of the trees have names, possibly all of them do, but a select few of them have signs indicating their names. There's even this walk-thru tree. If it looks like it was a hot and dusty day in these pictures, that's because it was a hot and dusty day.

Here is our wildlife picture for Yosemite. Is it a bear? A mountain lion? No, it's a woodpecker. That's actually about all we saw in our three days in the park other than an infinite number of chipmunks.

This was our first view of the Yosemite Valley and it might even be more amazing than Tunnel View (the first picture on this page). This is Glacier Point, accessible by an access road just south of the valley entrance. It's absolutely worth the drive up here for this view alone.

You can see most of the waterfalls in the valley from Glacier Point. In fact, from here we could see the entirety of what our hike the next day would cover. That's Vernal Falls at the bottom with the Emerald Pool just behind it. Nevada Falls is at the top of this picture.

Here is half dome. Staring across the valley at it cannot adequately be communicated through photographs, or at least not our photographs. We would later see it from below and then Tioga Road but this was my favorite view.

We did several short hikes in the valley and through the meadows. A bear closed off part of one trail while we were here and changed our plans. Our bear picture mostly consists of a whole lot of other people taking bear pictures much closer than our bear picture and thus the woodpecker picture was chosen instead. You can swim in the Merced River here in several places, highly recommended.

Here is Vernal Falls once again, this time at eye level. The mist trail runs along the edge of the river here and this picture is taken from the Giant's Staircase. It's aptly named and it's a bit of a physical challenge. At the top there is a rather exciting ledge that you have to cross to reach the top of the falls. There's a guide rope bolted to the cliff but two-way traffic makes this exciting.

At the top, there is this view down. I stood here and took this picture while steadfastly refusing to let my son come anywhere near this spot.

Just behind the drop over Vernal Falls is the so-called Emerald Pool. It's a placid, sort-of greenish lake and a pleasant place to sit and rest and drink water after you just climbed up those huge stairs.

Back in the meadow at the swimming hole to end this portion of our trip. (Tioga Road is a separate page) There was water coming over the top of Yosemite Falls during our visit but not very much and it didn't make it to the bottom in any coherent manner. Most of the water just dissipated into spray or mist about a quarter of the way down.