2011 Wild Western Adventure!

J and I love the WEST! I think that parts of my soul will always be left out there. The first American Dreamers really did have a point when they were allured by myth, adventure, freedom, views, and stories of the Wild West and the excitement that could be found there! We experience that feeling of freedom, anticipation, relaxation, commune with God and each other, every time we get out there. It is going to take a series of posts for me to every get through half of the 340 pics that I took (don't worry, I won't bore you with them all). Still, I want to record out trip for our future remembrances so bear with me! Yosemite, though still not my favorite National Park (Yellowstone and the Tetons as well as Rocky Mtn will always hold that special place) was a place of the most stunning and outlandish vistas I've ever experienced. California is just the coolest state possibly out of them all. We traveled a large portion (over 1k miles) of the Sierra Nevadas (so we didn't stay in the park the whole time) in six days and what I saw was remarkable and so varied. Dessert (the Mojave), fruit groves, rugged wilderness, salt water lakes with rare shrimp, ghost/gold-mining towns steeping with history, alpine pristine lakes, oil drilling, wind farms, cattle up against backdrops that left us speechless, sheep-herding like the old days, wildlife (yes, 5 bears in six days), three national parks within 4 hours, deep canyons (deeper than the Grand Canyon), the world's largest and tallest trees, fresh fruits/veggies abound, amazing outdoorsy folks who love to recycle and eat organic and exercise, and raging rivers! I know folks say that the Amazon river rages (I haven't seen that) but I did see rivers raging on this trip. They are accustomed to 190 inches of snow and they had 340 inches of snow! So, you can imagine that the rivers are over capacity (and occasionally scary) and the waterfalls would soak anyone within a mile radius (more on that later). There were even spontaneous waterfalls all over the rocks and canyons that are not normally there! The downside is that the park is expected to close the valley for flooding this next week--WOW--that was close.

( In case you wonder why it is the way it is--A long time ago, granite formed deep underground. The range started to uplift

4 million years ago, and erosion by glaciers exposed the granite and formed the mountains and cliffs that make up the range. The uplift caused a wide range of elevations and climates in the Sierra.)


The shots of the trees! Aaahhh...it is so peaceful to be among them esp. in the late evening when we were there and the deer were grazing around! It is amazing to think about trees that existed before Christ came.
(http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/mg.htm)
The Mariposa Grove, near Yosemite's South Entrance, contains about 500 mature giant sequoias. Although the oldest giant sequoias may exceed 3,000 years in age, some living specimens of the ancient bristlecone pine (found in the mountains east of Yosemite and at Great Basin National Park in Nevada, among other places) are more than 4,600 years old.
Our pics are of the --
The Grizzly Giant
Diameter at base: 34 feet (10 meters)
Circumference at base: 96 feet (29 meters)
Height: 209 feet (63 meters)
Elevation: 5,700 feet (1,735 meters)
Bark Thickness: 2 feet (61 cm)
Born: 700 B.C.E. (estimated)
You can tell that some of limbs on the tree are bigger than any trees we have around the south!

Perhaps you’ve seen this tree before—in the famous 1899 photograph of U. S Cavalry officers on their horses lined up on top! Also, the Buffalo Soldiers took their photo here.

A couple of the shots are of us at the famed Tunnel View in Yosemite. Tunnel View scenic overlook is a historic site, located adjacent to Wawona Road, with expansive views of Yosemite Valley, El Capitan, Bridalveil Falls, and Half Dome.

Some of the pics are views from Washburn Point. In it you can see Half Dome (the cables were not up to climb it for this year), Nevada and Vernal Falls, and a good spread of Yosemite National Park. These scenes are just TOO big to fit in a camera and I don't really know what I am doing but still they were amazing!

Some of the pics are from Glacier Point: elev 8,000 feet.

Some of the pics are us atop Sentinel Dome! We had to hike through some snow (yes still snow in high elevations there in late June). You can see me going up and then it feels like you arrive and are on top of the world! Mr. Marmot was even there to greet me on my arrival. He stood there for a long time admiring El Capitan while I took his picture! Looking west,we saw down Yosemite Valley and beyond to the Merced River canyon and all the way to Mt. Diablo in the coastal range. To the north we saw Yosemite Valley, including El Capitan and Yosemite Falls.
To the east, we saw Nevada Fall (which we later hike to), Half Dome and Clouds Rest, and an assortment of High Sierra peaks.