Yosemite National Park – A Photo Essay

As part of our road trip around West Coast America, we took a trip to Yosemite National Park, driving through the wine valleys and incredible views on 120 California Hwy, after a few hours of driving we hit the entrance of Yosemite, pay $20 to enter and then begins the decent to Yosemite Valley, where the village is.

Not long after starting our journey in to the forest we come to large burnt out areas from previous fires, the sun is shining and there is a blue haze across the sky with huge rocks coming out of the sky line. It’s amazing views as far as the eye can see.

We wind down through the burnt out forest pretty quickly the blue haze getting denser the further in we drive. Later we find out they have set a controlled bush fire on purpose due to the heat that day, doing this stops an uncontrolled fire starting from the heat.

Then we suddenly come to a clearing and there it is the Yosemite Village, so far down it looks tiny, the views are incredible, this tiny valley with sheer drops and huge rocks surrounding the village. There is a look out area for us to stop and really take in the view, I’m speechless it’s that amazing.

As we make the final part of our journey in to the Village it gets pretty steep, cold and dark – there are a few tunnels build in to the road. But once we get down to the valley floor, I’m in awe, the rock faces look massive from here, they tower over you like nothing else and the place is full of waterfalls – I have a thing about waterfalls so insist on stopping every time we see one.

Driving past the famous El Capitan rock, the Horseshoe falls, the Dome, Glacier Point, and The Yosemite Falls. Its busy, cars parked everywhere with tourists in the middle of the road taking photos thank goodness its only one way traffic around the village.

You can see the Yosemite Falls from this side but you can’t reach them until you drive around the other side of the park, we plan to do that tomorrow so head to the camp site. Pay $18 for our pitch which includes instruction of how we HAVE to put certain items in the bear box. It’s hot, so we take a little paddle in the river and then head to mirror lake and its exactly what it says in the name.

After spending the night in the village with an all you can eat buffet, pitch black walk back to the tent and a good night’s sleep despite the fear of bears. We set of the next morning, to read about the whole of this day check out my Driving in Death Valley post. The views as we leave the park are incredible.

The sky is so blue and the landscape is so vast, we take a final stop at this look out over the dome and take the change to take some photos of this incredible landscape.

After the final stop we keep on diving till we exit the park and continue on our road trip to Death Valley.

All Photos are Taken and Photo-shopped by Myself.