Yosemite - too beautiful for words!

From Awesome David

Tuesday, 17th October - Thursday, 19th October
... so I'll just use a selection of my photos

The Bridal Veil Falls stream

Logan and the Bridal Veil Falls

Granite boulders near the Bridal Veil trail

Yosemite's Half Dome rock surrounded by smoke from bush fires
- taken from Glacier Point

Yosemite Falls (in background) - taken from Glacier Point

Yosemite Falls - taken from the Four Mile Trail

Logan and Jonty at the start of the Four Mile Trail
(A trail starting at Glacier Point and descending to the valley floor)

Yosemite Valley looking East from the Four Mile Trail
The granite cliff 'El Capitan' is in the centre and The Cathedral is on the right

Logan and Jonty (1 mile into the Four Mile Trail)

Looking back at Glacier Point from the Four Mile Trail

Yosemite Valley taken from Union Point

A lovely section of the Four Mile Trail among Douglas Fir trees

A view of the meadow on the valley floor

Looking back at the granite cliffs we've been descending

A stream we crossed on the Four Mile Trail

Three miles into the trail, the plants become more deciduous

Logan and Jonty testing the temperature of the stream water

The stream runs under the autumnal trees 

El Capitan from 3 miles down the Four Mile Trail

Looking back up to the top from the Four Mile valley trailhead

Logan on the valley swing bridge at the end of the hike 

Yosemite Falls (centre) and the valley floor river
(Taken from the swing bridge)

The valley meadow with The Cathedral in the background

San Francisco: Day 1

  

From: Splendid Eliza

Today we went to San Fran and just really looked in shops, (yas). We (mum) found a left-handed shop that had literally everything for left-handers, I am a left-hander and so is my dad and I found this place AMAZING!!! There was stuff from books to pens to can openers to measuring cups but you can't forget the hilarious mugs that are only for left-handers because they have a hole on the right hand side of the cup

Left-handed pen

Left-handed book, notice the binding is
on the other side

From an Astonishing Jane

It's just like the movies. The buildings are all painted in gorgeous colours, juxtaposed to the neighbouring ones, quirky and charming in the extreme. Houses are two or three storied with narrow, winding staircases. Car parking outside your house is a nightmare, involving plenty of negotiating, reading signs and being prepared to re-park time and time again. Is Monday the 4th Monday of the month, or only the third one, we need to work this out least the street sweeper causes our car to be towed away........

And the streets......they are steep, incredibly so.

it goes down and then up, up, up.

with one way streets criss-crossing your path, and all way stop signs causing awkward angles

Such steepness, that Logan questioned our brakes, Jonty likened it to the California Screamer roller coaster

I think the downs were way more scary than the ups, but then I'm the 'MUM!'

It's delightful to be back in a city with a harbour, and boats, and bridges, ferries, cruise ships and containers. Ah, the mighty Pacific Ocean, we have missed you greatly.

Logan had his shoes off in no time and was happily running up and down the sand, jumping among the waves

Then Jonty decided to join in too.

Pier 39 is as amazing and as much fun as it looks. Continuing the quirk and funny ideas evident in the city - stores devoted to one thing.....chocolate, left handed stuff, donuts, socks, hats or key chains...and yet all well patronised. The street artists are amazing. Music, theatre, art works....incredible, and all needing to be paid in cash. Right, the cash-less (except for quarters and pennies for the penny pressing machines) tourists that we are have learnt our lesson. The last $30, in crisp never-before-used notes picked up in NZ mid-August, will be put to good use.

Giant trees and stunning scenery

From Awesome David

Saturday, 14th October - Monday, 16th October
Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park is a relatively small location nestled behind the Sierra-Nevada mountain range. It provides a unique environment that is perfect for the giant Sequoia trees - neither too hot, nor too cold, with regular forest fires that help them grow.
They are the largest trees on earth, by volume and mass; though they aren't the tallest and do not have the broadest girth.
Kings Canyon is a glacially-formed valley and the drive to the end of the road is incredible. It is unfortunate that we didn't have time to do a substantial hike around the area, but the Zumwalt Meadow Loop Trail was stunning. The walk took us over a river, around the golden meadow, through the forest border, and then clambering over shattered granite boulders.
As I thought about the immense history and the forces that shaped this place, I couldn't help but worship the God of this creation.

A stump of the largest Sequoia tree ever known to have lived

The Grants before the General Grant Tree

The General Grant Tree

The family in front of the General Grant Tree

Beautiful autumnal Aspens among the Sequoia

The Grant family standing in a giant fire scar on the Resurrection Tree

Eliza sitting on a big sawed stump

Measuring a big sawed stump using the family

Sawed giant stump in a meadow

Eliza 'in' the Mark Twain stump
(the stump of a tree cut down by loggers to prove to East Coasters
how big Sequoia trees were) 

Mule deer and fawn near the trail

The summit of the Buena Vista trail

Buena Vista - view of the valley

Frilled lizard

The family at Roaring River Falls

Eliza at Zumwalt Meadow

A view of the Kings River from the suspension bridge

Zumwalt meadow in the setting sun - granite cliffs in the background

Autumn colours sprouting from the collapsed granite boulders

Zumwalt Meadow