16 Sep A glitter of green and golden wonder

Some weekends ago I went to Yosemite with my roomie and landlord. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the Valley was really warm. Even though I was quite tired after only some hours of sleep (we got up at 4am), this amazing landscape made me never want to close my eyes.

The park was bigger than I expected – actually, everything was bigger than I imagined. Those enormous mountains and huge Sequoia trees impressed even a Norwegian like me, who is pretty spoiled in terms of seeing beautiful nature.

Looking down at the Valley in the early morning hours.

We walked the Mist Trail, which is one of the most popular hikes, overlooking Vernal Fall. I would absolutely recommend this hike if you’re going on a day trip, it’s pretty steep and has some beautiful viewing points. But you should get there early because this hike is very popular. At some points we had to walk slowly in line since there was so many people – which sort of ruins some of the experience.

Vernal waterfall is usually much bigger, but it reduces in volume in this time of year.

We also went on a shorter hike to see the Sequoia trees, and then we drove to see famous Half Dome from Olmsted Point. To finish up our fantastic day, we went down to Tenaya Lake to eat the last of our lunch and just enjoy the landscape.

At Tenaya Lake.

This quote by Ansel Adams, a photographer who has shot some beautiful pictures of Yosemite (Google it!), sums up my feeling about this place pretty good:

“Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.”