Day 17: Yosemite NP

Mono Lake

I woke up relatively early and drove to the lake to take a few pictures of the tufa formations. Then I went back to the room, had breakfast with Yasuko and then we left to drive through Tioga Pass and enter Yosemite NP.

Tioga Pass

We really enjoyed the drive over Tioga Pass. It reminded us of the beauty of the Rocky Mountains in a less wild flavor. Unfortunately, because we happened to make this drive on a Sunday, the traffic was absolutely dreadful and it got worse and worse the closer we got to the Yosemite Valley.

Olmsted Point

The view of Half Dome and the Yosemite Valley from Olmsted Point was really great. Too bad that the sky didn’t put up any sort of show and was plain and bluish… nothing special, really…

Bridalveil Waterfall in the Yosemite Valley

We attempted to enter the valley and had lunch at one of the hotels there but after lunch the traffic was just too much and the temperature was pretty hot so we decided to take the drive towards the Tenaya Lodge, a beautiful hotel at the Fish Camp, the south entrance of the park.