Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Yosemite


We only had one full day to enjoy the beautiful Yosemite National Park so we got up early and made sure to fill every minute to the fullest.  We began with a nature walk with a naturalist and learned all about the history of the park along with fascinating facts about some of the vegetation and rock formations that make the park so famous.






After our informative stroll my dad and I rented a couple of bikes and biked all over the valley floor while my mom explored the visitors center.

















Part of our bike ride took us to the visitor center to get cancellations and stamps in our National Parks Passport!





After a couple hours of bike riding, we met back up with mom and went on a open air tram tour of the entire valley floor!  It was really fun







This beautiful look at point is on the bank of the Mercer River looking at the famous Three Brothers.  This is the spot that a young 14 year old Ansel Adams developed an interest in photography.  I just had to create an Ansel-eque photo of this magnificent spot.  See below.




To end our tram tour with a bang, we drove up to a gorgeous overview look out point.  From here we could see El Capitan, Horsetail Fall, Clouds Rest, Half Dome, and Sentinel Rock.







That night I experimented with some long night exposures.  Since I didn't have all the gear I needed to keep the lens open as long as I needed it to, I couldn't get amazing photos like we got when we took our Edge of the Universe pictures.  But I still thought they were kind of fun.  It was fun to be out in the park at night, it has beautiful views of the star filled sky.


The next morning we had to pack up and leave the beautiful Ahwahanee Hotel and Yosemite.  I can't wait to go back one day!  We drove to the Mariposa Grove of giant Sequoias and Redwood trees and took another open air tram tour to see some of these majestic trees.  







1 comment:

  1. What a great day...from beginning to end...so glad it was clear blue sky. You have beautiful pictures and caught the majesty of those cliffs and impossibly tall trees.

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