Glacier Point - Sentinel Dome - Yosemite National Park - 8/13/16

Glacier Point - Sentinel Dome - Yosemite National Park - 8/13/16

Temperatures still mounting; heat wave continuing ... We went off again in search of cooler temperatures (and the fantasy that we could avoid the crowding by heading to Glacier Point).  Instead, we were diverted to parking at Badger Pass (the snowboarding park along Glacier Point Road) to join a line to board a shuttle to ride out to Glacier Point ... Sigh!

But, the views from Glacier Point into the glacier scoured valleys and water falls tumbling off of the granite domes were worth the modest inconvenience ... We found a quiet and shaded place to have lunch and sat in awe of the vistas far into the high Sierras.

We also found that we both had 4G LTE mobile phone service and made a few telephone calls that had been delayed by the poor coverage for both Verizon and AT&T.  We're planning on meeting up later in this trip with some new found Palo Alto, California friends from our Italian Dolomite adventure and our California/Tucson hiking buddy, Kathy ... Now in her home in Lafayette, California ... We needed to make contact ... And what a place to make a call!

Then we hiked from Glacier Point to Sentinel Dome and beyond to the shuttle bus pick-up at the trailhead to Sentinel Dome.  Somehow we missed the fact that we would be hiking uphill to base of Sentinel Dome and then up to the summit ... Silly us ... Another exercise in steep ascents.  Paul made it to the top of Sentinel Dome ... I stopped about .1 mile from the top, sat in the shade of a pine tree and simply dropped my jaw at the stunning scenery that stretched out below me.  Paul brought back the panoramic shots of the dome vistas.

A measure of the severe drought conditions was the fact that the Yosemite Falls (upper and lower) from Yosemite Creek Creek were dry ... There were no Yosemite Falls.

A shuttle ride back to Fritz and we headed down to the Yosemite valley ... Fortunately we were exiting the park ... Vehicles entering the heart of the valley (where the hotels/restaurants/and Visitor's Center are located) had a two hour delay to travel 1 1/2 miles due to the crowding (and no guarantee that they'd be able to find parking if they even got into the heart of the valley).  (Note to self:  Really, no more summer vacations in iconic national parks!)

This guy was not bothered by the crowds ...

And, the GPS doesn't show the steep elevation ascent from Glacier Point to Sentinel Dome ...