Views from the valley floor

Here are a collection of photos taken from the floor of Yosemite Valley. All of these shots were taken just a short distance from one of the roads in the valley. Easy views to get.

First up is a shot of El Capitan. Tammy and I ate lunch next to Merced River one day, and this was our view. The next photo after this is with my long lens, zoomed in on climbers on the rock face. They are completely invisible unless you look through something with magnification.





This is a sideways view of Yosemite Falls, the water falling away from the rock face as it crosses the brink.



A short trail to a bridge over the Merced River takes you past this meadow. The next shot is from that bridge, looking downstream.





I decided that this last photo looked better as a black and white. Maybe I was inspired by Ansel.

Yosemite Falls

When you visit Yosemite Valley, you really can't help but see Yosemite Falls. But you really ought to take the time to take the walk up to the lower falls - it is just too easy of a walk. On the other hand, if you are up for a real challenge (which we weren't :-), you can take a trail to the very top of the upper falls.

Here are a few photos of the short easy walk to the base of the lower falls. The path through the grove of trees, the distant view of both the upper and lower falls, and a pair of views of the lower falls.

Mist Trail

On Monday Tammy and I hiked Mist Trail. The loop we hiked was about 5 miles total distance (I think), the first half of which follows the Merced River up to Vernal Falls. The Merced River is full from snow melt, so it is a raging torrent.



In the distance, we would occasionally catch a glimpse of some distant waterfall, whose water would eventually join the Merced River.



When we finally caught a glimpse of Vernal Falls, we felt like we were nearing the end of our hike. We were wrong - the adventure was just getting started.

As you approach Vernal Falls on Mist Trail, the trail turns into a staircase - steps carved out of granite. And the trail name comes from the fact that you will get a shower on the way up from all the mist. We wore raincoats to keep ourselves and our cameras dry.





Near the very top, you get a nice sideways view of the falls.

And then you get to conquer the last few steps. Heights stress me out, so my trip up the mist drenched granite steps to this point was mostly staring at the steps in front of me, and putting one foot in front of the other. I would occasionally stop to check on Tammy, convince myself yet again that I was not going to slip over the edge, catch my breath, and then resume the trek up. The last few steps to the top required a little extra mental preparation. Here is a photo looking back on those steps.

Here is a view from the top, showing the raging river, and distant section of the trail. If you look closely at the top of this next photo, you will see an even more distant portion of the trail, where it crosses the river via a bridge.

Beyond Vernal Falls, the trail continues up towards another set of falls - Nevada Falls. We took another trail that led us back to the valley floor (different from the route up) instead of climbing all the way to the top of Nevada Falls, but got a couple good views of those falls. And then one last look back towards Yosemite Valley before we descended.

Sentinel Dome

A mere four weeks after my trip to Corpus Christi, I am on yet another trip. This trip is to Yosemite National Park, and is a week's vacation wrapped around a very important occasion: a marriage ceremony. To be more specific: last fall, Tammy and I decided to tie the knot, and we thought it would be cool to get married in Yosemite. We officially get married on Wednesday, but in the mean time, we are both really enjoying the astounding vistas that are to be found here.

One of the first places we decided to visit within the park is Sentinel Dome. A short trail gets you on top of what is literally a dome shaped chunk of rock, 8122 feet above sea level, with 360 degree views all around. You can peer down into Yosemite valley and see famous Yosemite sights such as El Capitan, Yosemite Falls and Half Dome. My fear of heights kept me from the edge (and the associated very long drop), but even from the "center" of the dome, there was no really shortage of photos to be taken. Here are a few from the bunch.

First, here are a couple of photos of distant Yosemite falls. They were on the other side of the valley, and you could still hear their dull roar.

This view includes El Capitan - the large vertical face of rock on the right.



The final view shows snow capped mountains in the distance, and Half Dome in the foreground (towards the right).

Yellowstone Falls

When we hiked the North Rim Trail, we were excited (and nervous) to have the chance of observing both the Upper Yellowstone Falls and the Lower Yellowstone Falls from their brink (right as the water plunges over the edge). The wide open views and the significant elevation change was enough to make me extremely tense. The upper falls are 109 feet tall, and the lower falls are 308 feet tall. Despite my nervousness, I forced myself right up to the railing in order to look over the edge at the water plunging down to the bottom.

I suspect anyone nearby may have chuckled at my obvious, white-knuckled grip of death on the railing. On the other hand, I chuckle at the fact that I am scared of heights and have a blog titled "No Ceiling".

Anyway. I digress. I did take some pictures of the water at the top rushing over the edge, but the problem I am seeing now is that my pictures come nowhere close to capturing the enormity of the drop off. When I look at my pictures of the top of the waterfall, I get no sense of the canyon, or the change in elevation. There is nothing in the photos of the upper and lower falls to give me a sense of scale.

But that does not mean there are no pictures worth sharing. Here is a sample of the views from the hike along the North Rim Trail. These pictures are:
1. Looking downstream at the start of the hike.
2. Crystal Falls.
3. The viewing area at the brink of the lower falls.
4. The canyon downstream of the lower falls.

Babbling brook

After descending past the Dark Hollow Falls, you can follow the Rose River Loop Trail (change the map type from "G. hybrid" to "USGS topo") along the Hogcamp Branch. This is a fairly gentle descent towards the point where the Hogcamp Branch joins the Rose River. The Rose River is part of the Rappahannock River watershed, and its waters ultimately end up in the Chesapeake Bay. For the most part, the Hogcamp Branch is running parallel to the trail. In typical mountain stream form, it provides frequent chances to see water running over rocks of various sizes.

I am sure the description in that previous paragraph is much more bland that the real thing. There is just something so very relaxing about the sound a mountain stream makes as it winds its way through, over and around the landscape. Every chance I get to watch and listen just makes me want to package it up and take it home with me. But, unfortunately, all I can do is take a picture and try to remember that sound.

Dark Hollow Rose River Loop

Yesterday, Tammy and I took advantage of the weather and hiked another loop within Shenandoah National Park. For this outing we combined a couple of well known hikes to waterfalls into a loop that was just under 6 miles long.

Near the Big Meadows Campground and Byrd Visitor Center [pdf], the Dark Hollow Falls hike is one of the more popular hikes in the park. It is short, but steep, and gets you to a series of three waterfalls (depending on how far down the hill you want to hike). Even further north of Big Meadows is the Rose River Loop Trail, that gets you to another set of falls.

When you hike down to the very bottom of the Dark Hollow Falls trail, you intersect with the Rose River Falls loop. So we combined the two into one hike. We started at the Byrd Visitor Center, hiked over to, and down, the Dark Hollow Falls trail. At the bottom of the Dark Hollow Falls Trail, we picked up the Rose River Loop Trail and hiked that until we got back to the Skyline Drive near Fisher's Gap, a few miles north of the visitor center. Finally, we took the Skyland-Big Meadows Horse Trail from Fishers Gap back to the visitor center.

If you would prefer to see that route on a map, then go here for just that, courtesy of my GPS.

Of course, I got lots of pictures on the way, especially of waterfalls. In the near future, my favorite pictures from this hike will be showing up in this blog. This one is of Dark Hollow Falls.

Bridal Veil Falls

We were tired, and had seen enough waterfalls. They were all starting to look alike. The Bridal Veil Falls were the last for the day.

Wahkeena Falls

These are the Wahkeena Falls, a mere 242 feet.

Multnomah Falls

The Multnomah Falls are actually two separate falls. The upper falls are 542 feet, and the lower falls are 69 feet. The second picture is only of the upper falls, taken from the bridge you see in the first picture.

Horsetail Falls

Along the drive west to Portland along the south bank of the Columbia River there are several waterfalls that are very easy to see. This is Horsetail Falls, located right next to the road. It is 178 feet tall.

Proxy Falls

The third waterfall stop was actually two different falls: Lower Proxy Falls and Upper Proxy Falls. A short circuit hike will take you past each.

The third picture is of the pool that the Upper Proxy Falls drains into. Notice anything weird? The picture may not make it easy to tell, but the water flowing in on the right side never flows out of the pool. It must "drain" straight down into the volcanic rock. My first theory was that someone had installed a submerged pump that pushed the water back to the top, to tumble back down again. But I found no evidence of a pump or pipes, so I came up with that other, less interesting, theory.

Sahalie and Koosah Falls

On the drive to Bend, we drove through the Cascades. The drive itself was very scenic, but we also stopped to check out some waterfalls that were fairly easy to get to. The Sahalie and Koosah Falls were within a half a mile of each other, both on the McKenzie River. The first are the Sahalie Falls. The second are the Koosah Falls.

Japanese Gardens

Right next door to the International Rose Test Garden are the Japanese Gardens. Within the Japanese Gardens are lots of very quaint and relaxing spots to contemplate whatever ails you. This picture is of a koi pond fed by a waterfall.

South River Falls

South River Falls in Shenandoah National Park. This picture was taken on date number three with Tammy. For some reason, she trusted me enough then to let me take her into the middle of nowhere on a date.