Thu at a look out with Half Dome behind her

Thu at a look out with Half Dome behind her
Originally uploaded by lmluc_oz

With the Grizzly Giant and Mariposa Grove behind us we drove onto what Lonely Planet rated as the best view in Yosemite, Glacier Point. However, before we got there we hit the look out you see in this photo. It was our first full view of what Yosemite had to offer.

Hot diggety-dayum! Not bad for a an appertiser.

Sidenote: Did you know that in the USofA appertisers are mains and they call their appertisers - starters? Confused me for awhile! They don't have anything called 'mains'. Thankfully desserts are called desserts.

Anyhow back to this photo and the look out. Undoubtably the star formation in Yosemite is mighty Half Dome, seen behind Thu. If you check out the other photos there is a two part water fall and other magnificent peaks as well, all with names that I have forgotten. You get abit blase about the water falls in Yosemite after awhile actually! There are quite afew, all very large and very impressive.

After stopping at this look out we drove on to Glacier Point...

Thu tree hugging

Thu tree hugging
Originally uploaded by lmluc_oz

Can't help but blog this one too.

hahahahahaha it kills me. She's so tiny! Trying to hug this giant. And the tree's actually not even that big compared to some of its neighbours!

We arrived at the Grove around about 8:30am, at this point, as you can see from her clothes, it was still quite crisp. I was expecting to see ewoks for the entire walk to the Grizzly Giant! I swear it felt like we were on the forest moon of Endor!!!!

Wicket didn't appear but we had a squirrel guide/shadow us the entire way. Obviously squirrels are the recon animal class.

We also stumbled across a doe, a deer, a female deer, on the way back. She didn't seem very scared of people at all. We actually saw lots of deer on our one day Yosemite extravaganza.

The Grizzly Giant

The Grizzly Giant
Originally uploaded by lmluc_oz

OK I'm going to have to blog out of chronological order because a) I'm testing the link between flikr and blogger and b) I'm blogging post the event and have posted photos out of order. Anyhow here we go.

The Grizzly Giant. Not as tall as I was hoping, but a damn big tree never the less. The tallest trees in the world are at nearby Sequoia National Park, alas I wasn't going to have time to visit. The Grizzly Giant was Yosemite's largest sequoia, a californian redwood.

I was especially impressed by the size of the boughs/branches. They were *easily* as big as most other trees on their lonesome! You can find the Grizzly Giant at Mariposa Grove, just inside the southern entrance of Yosemite National Park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_National_Park), well worth the quick detour to check it out before hitting Yoesmite proper.

NB: once you arrive at Mariposa Grove its a 15min walk to see the Giant. Make sure you check the signs or else you'll take the wrong track and it becomes a 30min walk!!! Don't ask how I know that.

All in all a beautiful start to our Yosemite one day extravaganza. Mr Mackay would have loved it. I believe the tree is 2700 years old or something like that. May it see 4000 more!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.