I will no longer be trippin'.

The foothills of the Sierra Nevada have sharp spikes of rock coming out of the hills. Pretty amazing looking.

I watched the light fade over El Capitan.


The still water creates such a clear reflection of the surrounding landscapes.



The light came and went from the clouds, and the fog moved in and out.

El Capitan caught the sunsets beautiful warm tones.

The light faded over everything and let just the highest cliffs catch the light. Another day in the books.

The Mist Trail was my next adventure. Sadly I wasn't able to take the trail up to the top of Half Dome because the cables enabling hikers to ascend to the top are down in the winter.

The water everywhere is beautifully clear.

A bridge that crossed the water was a viewing point for the waterfall. It seemed a lot of hikers just got to this point and turned back after getting a few quick shots. It was funny to see people get to the bridge and take photos of themselves, then they would walk a few steps more and actually see the waterfall.

The surrounding cliffs were beautiful.

Nevada and Vernal Falls were visible from the trail. When in the higher elevations the snow hadn't melted and was packed from traffic from hikers. This created an adventure. It was like a slide on the way down. I felt like I threw out my back a few times trying to catch my balance.

Vernal Falls was beautiful from across the valley. The trail down was even more icy.

The sheer granite without any vegetation is a wonderful gray.

The rock in the streambed was completely flat. It did look inviting to explore even though it was cold, and many signs warned of how dangerous that would be.

Emerald Pool was iced over of course.

The bridge is in view from the falls. I love seeing how far I have hiked.

The thunder echoed off the walls of the valley.

Below the falls the black rocks covered in white snow.

Looking back up to the icy trail that I now had to climb up intimidated me a bit. I had to pick up a sturdy pine branch to hike with. I would have busted my ass quite a few times if I had not.

I was going to see the sequoia groves on Yosemite before I left the park again, but of course the darkness fell before I got the chance.

As soon as I left out of 120 i remembered that I promised myself that I wouldn't take this way out. This road is so damn winding. A lovely terribly thick fog was present as well, yay.

Seeing more deer just standing by the roadside woke me bit more. At this point my trip is over.

Five Hundred Dollar a Night Pinecone.

It is amazing how dramatically the Merced River Valley changes as it gets downstream.

The cliffs aren't as steep so they can hold vegetation, but not many trees.

Parallel to the cliffs, waiting for the single lane bridge to let me passed, the shadows on the banks criss-crossed a runoff.

The sheer granite let you know you had entered the park.

The valley is known for its clear waters.

It did not take long to find out why Ansel Adams was so enamored by the landscape.

The weather above the cliffs changes so rapidly and dramatically, and the fog rolls inand out of the valley throughout the day.


Until the valley warms up a light layer of fog still persisted as I entered the valley.

And in the shadows, the fog hung on for a while.

I came and went through the valley so much and saw the same landmarks over and over, but because of the weather changes there was never a dull moment.



The cliffs scew the scale of everything in view.

Half Dome. Not sure what to say other than wow.

My intent was to visit Yosemite only, having not planned very much at all on this trip. This was the shot that I had been in love with, this is the image I had in my mind. Less green than I had imagined, but this is the viewpoint.

Because I have been sleeping in my car "camping" and I don't own a time piece of any kind I wake up late everyday. I cruised the valley and took the Mirror Lake trail because it was short.

The chartreuse of the smaller moss does not show up on a camera such as this, but the both mosses had the most brilliant greens.

Mirror Lake was..iced over in large part. But this boulder shows how it got its name.

Say hello to Half Dome again. You can see the outline of the dome in the clouds for either disturbance or coincidence.


The water being so clear lets the light pass through and reflect great colors from the sediment.

I took a wrong turn on the way back from the lake so it took me around and around and I came to an empty campground.

Good thing I'm great with maps. i found my way to a bus stop and damn. The winter is not the peak time of the park, but the shuttle was packed. I could not imagine being here in the summer, not even just the amount of people, but just dealing with the attitudes and driving of the visitors is an experience.

This is what a $500 a night pinecone display looks like. So I didn't really want to deal with the hassle of driving out of the park everyday to sleep, and I refuse to pay to camp, so I entered the hotel in the park. people were wearing bow ties and I assumed that the rooms might be $100 a night. Uh, no. So to turnouts without no parking signs I went.

Je t'aime the valley, OH!

The confusion of everything starts to clear up throughout the day. I got up early to pick up the bus pass that the county of Mariposa bought for me to get back to my car. I got to look at the butterfly wall for a few minutes while I waited for the bus to take me to the valley.

I got to see dew instead of frost this morning, and the only real reason I ever saw frost before wasn't because it was early, it's because the mountains shaded the grasses.

I tried to call the garage and find it on the map in Yosemite, but google said it was in the middle of a mountain, which I figured wasn't true. Because of all the confusion in what the hell was happening to me I left my wallet and all money in my car. I was supposed to get a bus ticket and get my car yesterday, but the garage was impound was going to be closed whenever I got there so I had to barter and stay another night. My agenda for the day was to get to my car and come back and pay the hotel so I wouldn't get anyone fired. Bartering in a big city would have never flied.

I wasn't able to take any pictures during the bus ride because for a multitude of reasons I got terrible motion sickness. I hadn't eaten anything for 36 hours since I didn't have any money, so I drank a lot of tap water. I filled up my empty coke bottle and figured the water tasted and smelled funny because of that. The water smelled like orange peels, a sour citrus. I didn't think anything of it until after an hour on the bus feeling iffy what little was in my stomach came up. I have never had to swallow vomit, and three times was no pleasure. But then there was that wonderful after vomit feeling! I have never gotten motion sickness so something had to be up with that water.

I'm not sure if the bus usually stops at the garage but the driver stopped and got out to deliver a package. That made finding the place easy. I got there expecting to pay $150 to get my car out of impound. The fact that I was taken into custody against my will and still made to pay for having the car towed is beyond me.

Cold starting my car took a while, but I'm used to it. Everything in my car was moved around so I figured it had been searched for weapons, drugs, cash or whatever else. Turns out it was to take inventory, but I suppose it could have been both. I didn't think of my wallet not being there, but it wasn't. Damn it. The valley is beautiful, even from the dirty car window.

I looked around and didn't find my wallet so I had to turn back. The valley's roads are mostly one way so it took a while to get back. I though since I had asked for my wallet when I was in the medical center it may have been taken out but was somewhere else. I was back at the law enforcement office and inquired, some calls were made and it should have been in my car so I went for a second look. I caught Park Ranger Sean (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm terrible with names) on his day off and we went to look for my wallet. Thankfully I found it in my glove compartment under some papers.

Since I wasn't able to go for a long hike I checked out the touristy stuff. I could not imagine being in the park during the summer, it is packed even now. The museum, theater, and Indian Village were pretty nice. I always enjoy documentaries so the movie on Yosemite was great, and in visitors center there was a three-dimensional map of the Yosemite Valley with trails and roads marked. That was so great, unless you get an extremely detailed map of just one trail it's hard to make out how hard a trail would be, seeing that the trails in the valley were either flat or STRAIGHT UP made me think of where I'd go. Old cemeteries look so great overgrown.

I always enjoy simple architecture and the bark covered shelters were great.

Granite was everywhere.

The sheer cliffs settled as I got out of the valley and gave way to trees.

It's nice to see areas that haven't been logged, on fire, or developed.

The road out was one hell of a lot better the ride in. I saw things I remembered from the morning when I was able to open my eyes and not vomit.

On the way there are single lane bridges crossing the river. On the other side of the river I could see the very substantial amount of rock fall on the roadway. The entire side of the cliff had fell onto the road. Not sure how long ago it happened, but putting in the bridges didn't look like they went up that fast.

I'm still gassy and it still feels like the tap water is coming up. I asked a local what the hell was up with the water, but she had no idea what I meant because she got her water from a well. The valley looked great from my car so I can't wait to finally hike a bunch. Traveling is great, but being off the road is and onto the trails is wonderful.