yosemite

I think I have a new favorite national park. omg, Yosemite NP is AMAZING!! It's all here - mountains, cliffs, monoliths, domes, valleys, canyons, waterfalls, rapids, rivers, streams, trees, meadows, wild flowers... And it's all in a rather compact area. However, it seems the word is out that it's a great park, because it can be really busy.

I love this view of Yosemite Valley: El Capitan on the left, Half Dome peeking out in the middle, a waterfall on the right, and lots o' trees.

I am always entranced by water features - I honestly can't tell you which is more interesting to me: water or rock. LOL Upper Yosemite Falls is super tall - combined with Lower Yosemite Falls, it's one of the tallest in the world.

This closeup of a smaller waterfall is cool - love seeing the drops and sprays, etc. Some things about nature just fascinate me; I could sit and watch water flow and splash for hours!

This is a different perspective of Half Dome. People actually climb this sucker - can you believe it?! If you look at the top bulge, near the left side, you can see a series of tiny dark dots going up... those are the cables installed by the park to assist hikers and climbers get up that very vertical slope. wow!

Talking about climbers... as we were tooling along on the bike, Greg pointed out some climbers on a different rock. There are actually two different sets going up - can you see them? Perhaps the following two pictures will help you pinpoint them better in this first picture.

We also saw wildlife again. This time it was a bear!! woohoo!! As Greg said - "that's a traffic stopper." Vehicles were stopping up and down the road to see him. At least this time folks were playing it smart and staying near the road. When we saw a bear last year - some dopey folks were trying to get closer to it to get a better picture. duh...

Now this little critter I think has beautiful fur, but he looks kinda mean in the face. Maybe he's just scared and mistrustful, as well he should be. But I have no clue what he is... can anyone help me?

Talking about wildlife. hahaha And yep, it was chilly, even here in California. Got my chaps on. LOL Yep, they're fringed chaps. You need to see a picture of me in these and my fringed leather jacket - that's biker babe at her finest!

And just to show that I'm not all woosy about cold weather - this little lake is still mostly frozen!!

Holy smokes! I don't think I've EVER seen a sign for that steep of a grade! Usually roads that are considered steep are 6 or 7 percent grade. But it certainly was a fun curvy road - great on the bike! This was the road outside Yosemite, to the north. So if you head this way sometime, consider your roads carefully!

The scenery on that steep winding road north of YNP was fantastic!