Yosemite Day Two: Tioga Pass to Yosemite Valley

On day two of our trip to Yosemite, we left the El Mono Motel in Lee Vining in the early morning and headed up Tioga Pass to the east entrance of Yosemite (we actually did Mono Lake at sunrise, but that was SO early that I thought it belonged in day one and was in a previous post). Since my last posting was very chatty :), I am going to keep this one a bit simpler. Before we arrived at the Tioga Pass entrance into Yosemite, we came across beautiful Ellery Lake, pictured below.

After a quick photo stop here at Ellery Lake, we continued on to the Yosemite Park entrance. Here's Billy entering the park. As you can see, he is very excited. The best part of me taking Billy with us was that my travel companion thought I was absolutely insane, BUT, by the end of the trip, she was talking to him too :)! Hee-Hee.

Tioga Pass Entrance

After crossing into the park, the first stop we made was here at Lembert Dome. A lot of people climb this dome, but we did not. We wanted to get to a couple of other hikes we had in mind.

First glimpse of Tenaya Lake (below). You can barely see it in between all the granite mountains.

Our first hike was here at beautiful Tenaya Lake, right off Tioga Road. It was a gorgeous day, very clear and crisp. We hiked down a short trail and walked all around the shoreline.

There were some cool trees along the shoreline...

A few more shots around the lake.

I was obsessed with this piece of driftwood. I took quite a few shots of it :)

My shadow. Notice all the stuff I have on...haha.

One last shot before continuing our drive down Tioga Road.

Our next stop was at Olmstead Point.

The view was spectacular from here and the sky so so blue! I loved the pattern of the granite rock.

Half Dome from Olmstead Point.

At about this point in our drive, our early morning wake-up for sunrise at Mono Lake was beginning to catch up to us. I remember feeling very sleepy. We made a quick stop here at this meadow (maybe a lake in spring?) before moving on.

We made one last stop before arriving in Yosemite Valley. I am not sure the name of this point, but it was on Big Oak Flat Road just as you were getting to the Valley. You could see Half Dome from a different perspective here and it had a sign with all the different faces of Half Dome. Pretty cool!

This brought us to around 2:30 PM. We were tired and hungry. We headed to our hotel to hopefully check-in and get a bite to eat. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we were told that our room was not ready and to come back after 5 PM.. *sigh* I won't get into it, but the front desk guy at Yosemite Lodge at the Falls left MUCH to be desired. Anyway, we went the food court at the lodge...YES, a food court.....so wrong, but I suppose necessary during the very busy summer months. After we ate, we headed back the way we had come in to explore a few places we had seen on the drive in. Our first stop was on the side of the road to take a couple photos of El Capitan...looking magnificent, as always.

Next stop was at Valley View...possibly my favorite view. A beautiful location with the Merced River in front, El Capitan on the left and Cathedral Rocks and Spires on the right.

Here's a shot of just the Merced River and El Cap with lovely fall colors.

Here's a shot of some of the fall foliage along the Valley Road. It was just incredible and I loved driving down this road everyday, if not twice a day!

A stop at beautiful little Fern Spring to take a few photos. Wonderful fall leaves all over!

Next, we made a stop in a lovely little meadow and ran across this historical site. I love that John Muir and President Roosevelt sat around a campfire right where I was standing. Nice!

A couple more shots of the fall foliage along the Valley Road (not sure that is the official name, but that is what I am calling it).

Next, we did a walk around the Swinging Bridge area. Really a beautiful place to walk..too bad we were so darned tired. Another shot of El Capitan from a little different perspective.

A fence shot from the Swinging Bridge Trail.

Looking back toward Swinging Bridge...which you can see in the photo below if you look closely.

There were fields of this beautiful golden grass...wonderful!

Haha...another fence shot. I seem to like fences.

After walking around the Swinging Bridge area, we still had about 30 minutes before we could check-in, so we made a stop at Cook's Meadow. I am sure glad we did. This is looking west into the sun, but I still liked the photograph.

Half Dome from Cook's Meadow, with the famous "Ansel Adams Tree" in the middle.

Oh! Look who wandered into my shot?? So cool! Thank you deer!

Well, that brings us to the end of day two. We went back to the hotel, checked in, and called it a night. Until tomorrow....