Mirror Lake We woke up and met Roxanne for breakfast. My brother gets a sweet discount for family so we went all out. Roxanne is leaving in the afternoon today, so we spent the first part of the day with her. Taylor showed us Mirror Lake and some Native American caves. We went to the Native American museum, which had a bunch of artifacts from the native people. I didn't know that they had lived here. Must have been a nice place to be before all of the tourists started coming. After Taylor went to work, we met up with Roxanne's parents at another waterfall. They were ready to head back to SF to get to the airport. It is crazy to think that they did our whole trip in a week and it took us a month! (We saw more stuff!) It was sad to say good bye, but we will be home soon. From there, Derek and I drove up to the Mariposa Grove, a grove of giant sequoias. These are some of the largest living things on the planet. Though not as tall as the redwoods, they are a lot wider. There is one called the Grizzly Giant. The branches of it look like full trees growing off the side. It is really bizarre. The pine trees here have huge pine cones that are about a foot long. It is funny that they are bigger than the giant sequoias, whose are very small. After a hike through the grove, Derek and I set out for Glacier Point. This is a long, winding drive (we got used to them) up the valley. Once at the top, you are hit with absolutely gorgeous views straight out of National Geographic. This has always been a popular tourist destination and I can see why. You can see Half Dome from above, which seems impossible from the ground. You see all in the valley and realize how spectacular it really is. It didn't hurt that the sun was setting as we got up there. The orange glow was settling on Half Dome, which was exquisite. The view on the was down wasn't so bad either! Once we got down to the Valley again it was dark. We looked up at El Cap and saw two groups of climbers with headlamps in the middle of the wall. It normally takes a few days to climb up it (the record is 2 1/2 hours!) so you have to pitch a tent on the side of the wall. Crazy! It is awesome to see their little lights on these massive walls! We met up with Taylor at work and got a pizza. Tomorrow we set out for Tuolumne Meadows with Taylor.
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AuthorThis blog will follow my friend Derek and me along our bicycle tour from Portland, OR to San Francisco, CA and the events leading up to it. Archives
August 2012
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