We stayed at the Wawona Hotel last night and enjoyed a real surprise for a national park...dinner was delicious and so was breakfast this morning. The original building here, the Clark Cottage, was built in 1876. I think the lady relaxing in the chair was born a few years later.
We stayed in the Moore Cottage which was built in 1894. We had a great little room on the second floor and the bathroom and shower were outside on the back porch. I love old hotels like this one. It is like sleeping in history.
The ground level of the Washburn Cottage was built in 1900. The second floor was the last addition to the hotel in 1915.
The main building was built in 1879. It has a beautiful wrap around front porch and a fantastic sitting area in the lobby where Tom Bopp was playing the piano last night. After our morning walk on the Wawona grounds, we drove up to Glacier Point.
Our first stop was at Washburn Point. The iconic Half Dome was right across the valley from us.
Due to the extremely overcast sky, there really isn't much color in this picture...
...so with all due respect to Ansel Adams, my attempt at a black & white photo of Half Dome.
Looking down at Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall.
Vernal Fall
Nevada Fall
There were several grouse hanging out at Washburn Point.
Trying to put a little color into the picture.
Our next stop was Glacier Point. It started raining right after we arrived.
Looking down into Yosemite Valley...
...and into Tenaya Canyon below Half Dome.
There were busloads of people at Glacier Point so I finally got some color on a dreary day.
Driving down 4000 feet to the valley from Glacier Point in the rain was a lot of fun for me. But here we are at the entrance to the incredibly beautiful Yosemite Valley.
Our next stop was Bridalveil Fall...
where there wasn't much water flowing over the cliff.
Chrissy loves these signs.
As we walked back to the car, the wind picked up and blew the thin stream of water back up the cliff.
We just followed the dry stream down to this old bridge.
We saw several of these vans in Yosemite...
...I think they are rentals from the San Francisco area.
We realized when we booked this trip that we would be here on Yosemite's 125th Anniversary. Again, I must thank everyone including John Muir who fought to protect this amazing place and helped make Yosemite a National Park.
The other iconic rock in Yosemite...El Capitan.
We stopped to stretch our legs at the Swinging Bridge over the Merced River.
This couple were having their wedding pictures taken out in the meadow in the rain.
The Swinging Bridge which doesn't appear to swing at all.
It was raining pretty hard when I checked in at Camp Curry. So we parked the car and grabbed a pizza in Curry Village. After lunch, these were the pictures Chrissy took from the parking lot.
The Park Rangers warned me about absolutely no food in our tent. We had to use the bear box out front.
It's time to celebrate in Yosemite.
This is the back of our parking permit for Curry Village.
These signs could be found throughout the park.
We settled into our tent cabin then headed out for a short hike. The rain had stopped but the temperature began to drop.
We spotted a couple of the locals also out for a hike or more likely dinner.
Since it seemed like the rain had stopped for good, we jumped on the Valley Shuttle Bus to Happy Isles and hiked along the Mist Trail to the Vernal Fall View Point.
This lady kept following me all over Yosemite. I'd better find a ranger to protect me.
Oh yeah, blue skies and great scenery on this trail.
We took a few shots of Vernal fall from the bridge over the Merced River. But due to the setting sun and the two of us hiking very slowly uphill, we headed back down to the trail head.
After dinner in the cafeteria, we stopped at the mountain shop so I could buy a ski cap. We have an unheated tent cabin and the temperature had dropped to the low 40's. But sleeping fully dressed in a double bed created enough heat to keep us warm...and the hat helped too.
