California Vacation: Hiking in Yosemite National Park; Visiting Matt and Xuxu in San Francisco, CA
Photos taken October 20, 2012 - October 28, 2012

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Giant Sequoia in Mariposa Grove, near South Entrance to park
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One of Yosemite's most famous viewpoints - Tunnel View. From here, you can see (left to right) El Capitan, Clouds Rest, Half Dome, Sentinel Rock, Sentinel Dome, Cathedral Rocks, and Bridalveil Fall (which was dry for us).
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Panoramic shot of Tunnel View
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Parked in the lot of Curry Village, not a bad view!
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Our tent cabin in Curry Village!
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Our food locker. Each cabin had one of these where we had to store all food and all cosmetics that smelled. They're called "bear lockers", because they are supposed to keep the bears away. I think they are just as much "critter lockers", to keep away the raccoons, skunks, ravens and other smaller and hungry animals.
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Our first day of hiking was in High Country, where we drove from our 4000 foot elevation campsite to the 8600 foot elevation Tuolumne Meadows. Along the way, we stopped at this view point.
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Driving to Tuolumne Meadows, passing a scenic lake.
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Tuolumne Meadows
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Tuolumne Meadows
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I didn't dress quite warm enough, so I snagged Mom Klocke's fashionable winter hat. How do I look?
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Tuolumne Meadows. The scenery just keeps getting more and more beautiful
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Tuolumne Meadows. Just stunning. And only a 10-15 minute walk from our car.
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Tuolumne Meadows
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Tuolumne Meadows
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Tuolumne Meadows
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Now, we start our real hike. Kelly's parents brought these great walking sticks for us to use. Very handy!
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Typical look of the wooded trail. The goal is to hike to Cathedral Lake to see the lake as well as Cathedral Peak. We'll hike 8 miles round trip and go from 8,500 feet elevation to 9,300 feet.
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Arriving at Cathedral Lake: 3 hours in, we made it to the meadow just before the lake!
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Mom and Dad Klocke at Cathedral Lake. We didn't last long up here, because it was very chilly and windy.
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Kelly and Jay in front of the lake.
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Family photo!
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Cathedral Peak. If you put your back to the lake in the previous photos, this is what you'd see. Awesome. We found out later that the hike continued around to the far side of the lake where you could get both the lake and the peak in the same shot, with a possible lake/peak reflection, as well as a ridge view overlooking the lower valley. We were bummed that we didn't do it, but we were very worn out, suffering from some elevation sickness, and freezing. We'll just have to do it next time!
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On to day two. We didn't hike during day two, because it rained all day. So, we drove around the valley and visited the fancy Ahwahnee Hotel and a few museums. Here's the courtyard and a mountain view out the back door of the hotel.
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Zooming in atop the mountain, you can see snow! It snowed overnight, everywhere above 6,000 feet elevation. The road we took to high country (Tioga Road) was closed today and the rest of our trip because of snow!
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Fog and low-lying clouds in Yosemite Valley
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We were visited by a family of deer at our campsite. I followed behind these two as they slowly wandered up the row of tents as I walked back to ours.
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Camp Curry!
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Day 3 - today, we hiked to the Vernal and Nevada Falls. This photo is at the start of our hike.
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Kelly and Mom Klocke all bundled up for the start of the hike.
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Dad Klocke reviewing the mileage to the top of Nevada fall, our destination. 9 miles round trip (we hiked a mile to get to this point), covering an elevation rise of 2000 feet.
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Family photo. Notice that Kelly and Mom Klocke have already shedded their top layers. Hiking makes you warm!
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Hiking up a long and windy stone staircase to see the Vernal Fall.
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Continuing to hike up the staircase.
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The Vernal Fall -- we're told that in the springtime as the snow melts from the mountains, this fall covers the span of the dark-colored rock.
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Even with a narrower breadth, it still looks mighty powerful!
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Pausing to catch our breath.
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This little guy looks like he is well fed and ready for a long cold winter.
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Looking down from the edge of the Vernal Fall.
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Time to continue on, we've only gone up 1000 feet. On to Nevada Fall.
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That's the Nevada Fall off in the distance. We're headed to the top of it.
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More stone staircases!
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Jay and Kely in front of Nevada Fall
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Dad and Mom Klocke in front of Vernal Fall
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Pretty stream below the fall. The calm after the storm?
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Geronimo!? (Looking down from the edge of the Nevada Fall)
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Jay standing at the overlook at the edge of the Nevada Fall
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Geronimo again! Kelly tempting fate. (Don't worry, she wasn't really doing anything dangerous!)
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Kelly and Mom Klocke atop the Nevada Fall.
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Our view for lunch. Not a bad spot for lunch, though it was a bit windy.
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One more photo before we begin our descent back to the valley floor.
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On the way back down, we were able to get great views of Half Dome and Liberty Cap. Some day, Kelly and I hope to ascend Half Dome.
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Liberty Cap and Nevada Fall
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Nevada Fall
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Goodbye Nevada Fall.
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Our hike down was a half-mile longer than the hike up, but it was a much less steep climb, so it was not quite as strenuous.
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Happy to have made it back to the valley floor.
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Back at Tunnel View - this time hiking a mile up the mountainside to try to get to a better viewpoint.
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Again, one of the traditional views of Yosemite. Unfortunately, we were not blessed with blue skies today. But, still quite impressive.
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Kelly enjoying the view. While hiking here, we did get sleeted on a little bit. That was fun!
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Back at the Mariposa Grove visiting the Giant Sequoias, before we must leave Yosemite. They are so impressive!
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Standing in front of the Grizzly Giant.
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The California Tunnel Tree. The hole was carved in 1885, before experts determined that this damaged the trees (gee, who would have guessed?) It does give a good perspective to the magnitude of the tree, though.
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The tree has tried to heal itself. You can see it regrowing bark in an attempt to close over the hole.
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We encountered this deer while walking through the grove. He was the least camera shy of of a group of a half dozen deer.
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Jay illustrating the diameter of a giant sequoia.
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More giant sequoias. Many of these are a couple thousand years old, having survived dozens of forest fires and other natural disasters. Amazing.
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Showing the impressive height of a giant sequoia. Now, off to San Francisco!
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Kelly and her friend Rupam, at Dolores Park in the Mission District. We were very happy that Rupam was able to show us around the Mission District and take us to Lolo, a very tasty Mexican restaurant.
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Looking back at the Golden Gate Bridge from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, just northwest of the bridge.
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Matt and Xuxu with the Golden Gate Bridge.
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Jay and Kelly -- yes, my shirt is awesome :)
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Golden Gate Bridge as seen from Hawk Hill, the apex of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area
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Xuxu, Matt, Jay and Kelly
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We were thrilled to discover Land's End Park and the Sutro Bath remains. We hiked our way down the hill to make it to the beach.
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Sutro Baths, and the Pacific Ocean.
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Looking out a tunnel at the Sutro Baths
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The beach at Land's End. Very undisturbed, because it is a moderate hike to access.
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The beach at Land's End.
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Someone got creative and made a sand/rock art skull.
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Jay and Matt taking in the views
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Matt and Xuxu smiling for the camera.
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Final shot of Land's End park and the Sutro Bath remains.
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Looking back towards downtown San Francisco from Treasure Island
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Looking back towards downtown San Francisco from Treasure Island
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Visiting the Japanese Zen Garden inside Golden Gate Park. Recommendation to all visitors: don't spend $7 per person to go here. You'll struggle to spend 20 minutes here. It's pretty, but not worth the money.
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We rented a four-person bike for an hour. It was VERY challenging! The bike weighs a lot, and none of us are in biking-shape. But, we toughed it out.
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At the edge of Golden Gate Park are two windmills over 100 years old. This one was built in 1903.
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An entrance to Golden Gate Park, and one of the two windmills.
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Time to go home. A view from the airplane.
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The Rocky Mountains.
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Nearing Salt Lake City.
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