Tuesday (July 25) was another early morning. We left our campsite about 0720 and drove up to Glacier Point, which took almost an hour and a half. Near the top, we stopped at a viewpoint not far from the Point. Despite being hazy out, the view was spectacular. This was a great shot of the hike that Eric, Greg and Heath did yesterday – Vernal Falls is the lower waterfall, Nevada Falls was the higher one, and Half-Dome was on top.
After a quick photo, we piled in the car and drove the final short stretch of road to the peak. The Glacier Point parking lot led to a paved, gently sloping trail. This photo was taken near the beginning of the trail, looking east, and was the same set of waterfalls/Half-Dome as pictured above.
Believe it or not, there were still some rather large chunks of snow scattered about. We followed the .25-mile trail to the viewpoint of Yosemite Valley below. The first shot was looking south to Yosemite Falls, the second was looking west, the last was looking north.
The males did the inaccurately named “4-mile hike” down the mountain to Yosemite Valley. The trail was built in 1872 by the owner of the Glacier Point Hotel. The trail was 4-miles back then. In the 1920s, when the National Park Service (NPS) took over the property, NPS lengthened the trail to 4.6-miles make it less steep. But from parking lot to parking lot, it was a total of 5.5-miles. Here are some photos of the trek down.
Christi drove the truck back down the mountain and picked them up at the parking lot near the bottom of the trail. We decided to go to Yosemite Village to for lunch, but we couldn’t find a parking spot. We wound up going back to our campsite. The kids were so tired from the hike that they passed out in the car.
Back at camp, everyone went straight to the creek to enjoy the cool water and rest.
In the mid-afternoon, Greg and Heath rode their bikes over to Yosemite Falls, then to Yosemite Village for a late lunch/early dinner. Christi, Eric and Keith laid low at the campsite. In the early evening, Christi, Eric and Keith walked to Curry Village for dinner.
It wasn’t a colorful sunset, but the moon looked neat. We were pleased to report that all was relatively quiet in the camp at bedtime.
