Yosemite rivisited

Few months back one of Mr. Man’s friend contacted him after a long time. Actually he was his classmate in Elementary school back in India. The guy was visiting California, and he asked Mr. Man to accompany him to Yosemite. I also didn’t want to loose the opportunity to go to Yosemite. The  steep high mountains with lurking numerous falls apart from the famous ones always fascinate me. 

Roaring Merced River

This time we were even more excited than other time, because we knew that the falls were going to be over-flowing with water due to rain and snow through out the winter. We started very early in the morning, even before the first ray of soft yellow sun came into our backyard swimming pool. Anyway, we reached the park around 9 in the morning. To our pleasant surprise  we didn’t need to pay the park fee, as it was National Park day. When we were entering the park, the Marced River was flowing in full force , pounding the rocks with great roaring sound. We saw the same river, we heard the roaring sound , but this time it seemed that the roaring sound, the force, the amount of water all were much more that any other time with visited previously. The beauty of the river was so captivating, that you could spend a whole just by sitting on a big rock on the river bank. This time didn’t have any plan for hiking, we went there just for sight seeing. Our first stop was Bridal veil falls. Yosemite is a popular tourist destination. So, it  is always full on the weekends, especially on the Saturdays. As we crossed Pohono Bridge and took the turn, we saw a long queue to enter parking area. Luckily, we got a parking space. The fall was looking so beautiful and majestic. That was full with so much of water, the water was evening seeping on the parking area, and we literally tiptoed on the water to reach the trailhead head of the fall. When we reached the foot of the fall, the area was white with the mist. The area was extremely cold, and wet. It was impossible to stay there more than few minutes. Within that few minutes we got totally drenched by the tiny droplets which were spluttering from the foot of the fall.

Majestic Bridal veil falls

Someone is goofing around

From there we went to Tunnel View point. Before entering in the long tunnel, the semi circular vista point gave us an enchanting view of lively green high mountains with many waterfalls gushing out from the creases. 
As the Glacial point was closed due to heavy snow through out the winter, we decided to return from there, instead of going ahead. Then we went to the center point, the Yosemite Village, from where we could take trail to the lower Yosemite falls. However, when we reached the Yosemite Valley, all the parking lots were full. It was very much crowded, everyone was rolling in cars from one parking space to another. We already saw the lower Yosemite falls, but our company was there for the first time. So, we decided to drop him at the trailhead of lower Yosemite falls, and asked him to go and see the falls. We took more than 45 minutes to get a parking space near Valley store. Our plan was to go to the sites inside the park in park shuttles. 

Tunnel view point

After parking our car, we walked to the lower Yosemite falls trailhead. In the mean time our company already completed his Yosemite falls visit. Then our plan to go to the Mirror Lake. After waiting few minutes we got the shuttle and went to the Mirror Lake trail head. From the trail head it was one mile walk to the mirror lake. It was an easy hike. The funny things is that, when you see the lake, you cannot find anything exciting, but if you see the pictures, it looks so beautiful. The big rock inside the lake looks so beautiful with clear mirror image inside the lake. 

Teneya Creek

Mirror lake

The most exciting happening was waiting for us. From the mirror lake our plan was to go back to the valley to have lunch. We were walking towards the bus stop, and we saw few people were whispering and taking pictures. The we saw a mountain lion came almost near to the trail. The color of the lion was as same as the mountain. So, sometimes it became difficult to locate the lion. However, whenever it was moving we could see it. Usually , the mountain lions are very shy, also they are nocturnal. 

Can you spot the mountain lion

Till then we went to many mountains, but never saw mountain lion. It was sheer luck, that we could see a mountain lion on a bright sunny day in the afternoon. The lion was completely unfazed by the presences of human beings. Anyway, that was good, otherwise it the if lion became angry, anything could happen. We were lucky that so many people were present at that time. However, it was a great gift to see wild animal in his own habitat. Then we came back to valley to have late lunch. We came back around 8:30 at night. It was a long, long day, but we were happy.