Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley & Yosemite via Hwy 140

Monday, May 11, 2015

The weather is great today and the weekend is over.  In the hope of fewer people, we packed a picnic lunch and headed to Yosemite.  So much to see.

This picture is looking westward from a high point turnout just before heading downhill into the Yosemite Valley.  That is the Merced River flowing through the canyon.

While Tic was taking pictures I spotted this large bird that landed in the top of a dead tree.  Tic zoomed the camera in as close as the camera would go.  Pretty good picture.  I still have not been able to figure out what type of bird this is.  Based on its beak and the way it sits on the tree it is some kind of predator.

Here we are at Half Dome view point.  This is the view one direction.

I don't know which waterfall this is but the double falls is really cool to see. 

The whole view is so awe inspiring and pictures don't do it justice.  So Tic decided to try a movie.

I know this looks like a painting, but this is the way it looked!  We are at Glacier Point now.  This is only a short way down the road from Half Dome view point.

This is Half Dome.  We saw it from many locations throughout Yosemite.

From Glacier Point we could see Yosemite Falls.  There was snow on the mountains just a couple of days ago, so all the waterfalls are flowing. 

The various formations in this mountain are fascinating.  The village can be seen 3214 feet below.

More inspirational views from Glacier Point.  From here we headed to the Yosemite Valley.

This short movie shows Yosemite Valley from the far east side to the west side where you can see Yosemite Waterfall.  I know I am repeating myself, but the bottom is over 3200 feet straight down.  Makes my knees feel like jello.

The route takes us through the tunnel shown above.  I tried to take pictures inside the tunnel, but they did not come out. 

This is the other side of the tunnel.  There is also a large parking lot and the "tunnel View" viewing area.

There are plenty of people to take our picture. The waterfall in the background is the Bridal Vail waterfall.

Here we are at the base of the Bridal Vail in the parking lot.  The tall pines are thick.   It is intriguing that all the lower limbs are dead, but the trees are very much alive.

 This movie is the water flowing away from Bridal Vail Falls.

Here's Bridal Vail up close.  It is very windy here.  Can you tell the water is being blown to the left as you look at the waterfall.

As we went further into the Yosemite Valley we stopped to view El Capitan.  Tic is such a good picture taker.  To me, this looks professional.

This was a park with the Merced River flowing slowly through it.  You can see the beach area where children are playing.  From the walking bridge you can see the upper Yosemite Falls.

This has a great view of the upper fall and if you look carefully you can see the lower falls.  We saw 3 or 4 falls today.  Now I cannot tell which fall is which, so I'm not going to put in any more waterfall pictures.

Look at the unusual striations in this mountain.

Once we decided we were ready to head home, we decided to take a different route home.  This is Hwy 140 headed west out of Yosemite Valley.  Gorgeous!!!

As we were headed out on Hwy 140 when we came upon this huge boulder hanging over the road.  We were glad we were not in the motor coach. 

The Merced River runs along side of Hwy 140.  We stopped in several places and took pictures.

One side of the road had the river and the other side of the road had steep mountains.

Here is a portion of the Merced River rushing over boulders.  There were lots of spots like this.  The power of the water was awesome.

Here's the second boulder hanging over the road.  We stopped after we drove by and Tic took this picture looking back.

More magnificent mountains with lots of color.

Then there was this mini tunnel between two boulders.

Look at this boulder.  There was actually a height sign that is not in this picture.  The height is 13ft 3in.  We want 13ft 6in for our coach.  Tall buses would have to drive in the wrong lane to go past.