Day - 3, Fathers Day and drive to Yosemite

We started the day with Breakfast at a little restaurant called "Toasties" It used to be my favorite when we would go to meetings at the Asilomar Conference Center near Monterey when I was at Berkeley and UCSF. THey still had the great home fries. We drove along the coast. The Seas were rougher this morning as you can see.



We saw this deer at the entrance to 17-mile drive. Because it was getting late and because they wanted to charge $10 to enter (used to be free) we decided to head towards Yosemite. 6 hour drive lay ahead. Along the way we stopped at an orchard and bought some cherries. They were sweet, crunchy, and wonderful!



We got to our room at the Yosemite View Lodge around 7, checked in, and headed to the Valley. We came in on Route 140, which runs along the Merced River. The river that runs through Yosemite Valley. It had been a big snow fall year and we expected a lot of water. But the river was really raging. This built anticipation for the water falls in the Valley. They should be raging! We were not disappointed. The first falls is Bridalveil. Here it is in full glory in the late afternoon sun. IT was kicking up a bunch of mist. We would visit it towards the end of our visit to the Sierras.



Only the top of El Capitan was lit up in the late afternoon sun. We would get a number of chances to sit in the meadow below El Cap, one of our favorite activities in the past. There were lots of climbers on the monolith throughout the week.



Yosemite Falls was really raging. So much water it looked like another falls. It is in the shadow in the early evening as you can see.



There was so much water pouring into the Valley there were fall we didn't every remember seeing before. This one is Sentinel Falls, cascading in multiple steps just west of Sentinel Dome. It has the second largest drop in the Valley after Yosemite Falls. We also saw a black bear with two cubs as we drove back out to our room. Due to a bad setting on my camera we didn't get any decent images. My screw up. I was updet. Luckily, fate would give us a second chance later in the week. We had a hard time falling asleep knowing our exploration of Yosemite valley began tomorrow morning.