We woke this morning in our cabin in Yosemite after a pleasant evening seeing a few more sights and having a relaxed and casual dinner at the Yosemite Lodge. Before dinner, we drove around the Valley to make sure we got a good look at all the stuff: El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, and Bridalveil Falls. It must have been official Rainbow Day at Yosemite: a rainbow at Vernal Falls in the morning, and one at Bridalveil in the evening.
Rainbow @ Sunset @ Bridalveil, June 2012
The one major place I've never made it to in my three prior visits to Yosemite is Glacier Point, which sits high above the Valley and is about an hour by car. Or 5 miles by foot, if you want to climb 3,200'. So I got up and out early and drove up. Morning is not the best time for photography from the Point; Once the sun gets up (I got there around 7:15), the major falls in the Valley are all in shadow, but the upper rocks like Half Dome are all fully lit so you have too much contrast overall yet lots of glare in the high areas. But while I was leaving the Valley I spied the moon setting over the valley wall.
Moonset in Yosemite, June 2012
Here's a shot that gives a sense of the scale of the Valley and some of the features. From Glacier Point, you are about eye-level with Half Dome. Down on the right, you can see the curved shape of Nevada Falls. If you follow the glinting Merced River as it flows down from Nevada, you can see a small patch of white which is Vernal Falls. Refer back to yesterday for a shot of Vernal and how big and powerful it is up close.
Looking up the Valley, June 2012
But unfortunately we had to go. I always hate leaving great places, and I've always hated leaving Yosemite. Our travels today took us all the way back to (almost) the Pacific coast; we're now ensconced in the Auberge du Soleil in Napa Valley. This is one of the wife's exquisite selections of great places to stay - just a little different than the lodging in the National Parks. And the last hour or two of the ride out here wasn't so great as we transitioned from mountain wilderness to industrial farming to San Francisco metro traffic (and Napa Valley traffic) to this oasis in the hills overlooking yet another Valley.
The life of luxury we deserve, June 2012
We've already tasted 4 or 5 different wines and we haven't yet left the hotel area, nor actually paid for any of them. I could like this ...So there you have three parts to the day: the magnificence of Yosemite, the brutality of the highways within 40 miles of SF, and the tranquility and elegance of Auberge du Soleil.
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