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Yosemite National Park should be required attendance for anyone seeking inspiration for natural arts. It can be a strenuous trip, but I would assure anyone with a doubt that there they will find enough food for thought for a lifetime. We spent 2 1/2 days there and are already talking about coming back. Here are a few of the natural trees and breathtaking vistas we saw during our trip.
This California juniper may be several thousand years old. It is over six feet wide at the base, and perched high above Highway 120, Tioga Road.
Below is a view of Half Dome seen from the opposite direction it is usually photographed. This view is from Olmsted Point on Tioga Road, and a very short walk takes one to an even better view. Unfortunately, my camera battery chose this moment to take a dive. Rhonda has some great ones up here which I need to develop and scan.
The first memorable sight of the valley when approaching from the northern route is this view of Half Dome, framed by the valley walls.
The valley floor itself is quite crowded with tall trees of several different varieties, but important land marks will show themselves from time to time.
Following are some scenes from one of our hikes. This was a hike to the top of Sentinel Dome off Glacier Point Road. It was a very moving experience to see the entire valley laid out around us. There were wonderful stunted trees all around, including Ponderosa Pines, spruces, and others. I will have more to say about that later, as I need some time to digest and truly understand what it all means to me.
This little spruce was growing out of the smallest of cracks in this monolithic granite block. What an amazing sight!
This is the view of Sentinel Dome from the trail. It's not a difficult hike, although the last few feet to the top of the dome are a little steeper. It looked like we were going to need rock climbing equipment from here! Fortunately, the other side is a gradual slope that is a quite easy climb. Below is the late afternoon view toward El Capitan (far right of the photo).
