Yosemite NP – So Big!

We had a blast exploring the very large Yosemite Park. We spent three day exploring this park. Yosemite Valley is a spot that a lot of visitors go. Here you can find all sorts of accommodations from camping areas to the Yosemite Lodge, as well as a restaurant and store. There is a shuttle that runs in this area, so you park once and ride the shuttle to all of the trails in this area. The Valley is where you can see Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls.

On the way into the valley, you are treated to a beautiful view of the Bridalveil waterfall, from afar.

We also got our first glimpse of Half Dome. This is a feature that we would see several more times from different directions.

Just before we arrived in the Valley, we had a chance to see Bridalveil Fall up close.

Below you can see Yosemite Valley from above, El Capitan and Upper Yosemite Falls.

Here are some more views of Half Dome. The first picture is from the opposite side of the park at Olmstead Point. In the bottom picture you can see Half Dome on the left and Vernal Falls in the center of the picture.

Washburn Point provided some amazing views.

The views from Glacier Point were just as amazing. If you look closely, you can see Yosemite Falls over my shoulder and more shots of the valley below. The last picture is a view of Upper & Lower Yosemite Falls. They really are just gorgeous.

We caught a glimpse of this guy one afternoon as we headed out of the park. It is a little hard to tell, but yes, it is a bear. This picture is zoomed in, he was much further away!

On the last day we headed to the Hetch Hetchy area of the park. Another long and winding road took us to this.

This reservoir, known as the Hetch Hetchy Valley, serves as the primary water source for the City and County of San Francisco and several surrounding municipalities in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. The dam and reservoir, combined with a series of aqueducts, tunnels, and hydroelectric plants as well as eight other storage dams, comprise a system known as the Hetch Hetchy Project, which provides 80% of the water supply for 2.6 million people. Additionally, the entire system produces about 1.7 billion kilowatt hours per year, enough to meet 20% of San Francisco’s electricity needs. How cool is that!