holidays

Bright sunshine all day. At breakfast our hostess Pamela mentioned that she’d had a notification from Google of a link to her website (Hi Pamela!) from this blog.
Pamela suggested a hike and lent us a book detailing the route. We drove up the Glacier Point road and parked near the Sentinel Dome. From there we went up the dome and admired the fantastic views. Then we did the Pohono Loop, as detailed by the book, but in reverse. The trail took us around the base of the dome and along the upper slopes of one of the valley sides. Views of waterfalls and the other side of the valley were great. We saw mule deer. We got to an abandoned road where the book said ‘bear left’, but we looked and didn’t see one.
We stopped for lunch and ate our sandwiches sitting on a fallen tree looking out at the opposite side of the valley and Yosemite Falls.
We found some snow plants – a parasitic plant that doesn’t photosynthesize, so has no green chlorophyll. It parasitizes underground fungi, which in turn feed off decaying organic material.

Towards the end of the walk we took a detour to Taft Point and the Fissures – some deep clefts in the granite. We saw some lizards, and looked at another vista of the valley floor from the lookout at Taft Point.
We drove up to Glacier Point. The views were really very good. (Pictures are on flickr.) There were lots of people there, and a gift shop.

We drove back to have dinner at the Wawona Hotel, and on the way, about half way down the Glacier Point road we saw several cars parked by the side of the road, with people standing looking down the slope. We pulled in, and sure enough, there was a bear. It was about 50m down the slope, wandering in and out of sight among the trees. We watched it for a while, and then went to have a pot roast dinnner at the hotel.

Back at the Big Creek Inn we watched the humming birds squabbling around the nectar feeders. J went in the hot tub while some mule deer come down to the creek for an evening drink.

We could happily spend another week here. The Big Creek Inn is wonderful, and the scenery spectacular; but tomorrow we’re crossing the Tioga pass – altitude 10,000 feet – to the eastern side of the Sierras.