Yosemite National Park

El Capitan was our first view of the park after entering at Arches Entrance, in itself amazing, as we drove through an arch of granite!

 Several waterfalls dot the face of the particularly hard granite, which has been able to withstand glaciers and erosion.

So funny to see waterfalls, and not hear anything!

But if you check out the dots, which are cars,  along the trees at the base, you can see why!  

John Muir said it best!  To take full advantage of the park, one should probably hike and go out on the water and really enjoy it, but I was happy to be able to see it.  

We did hike to the base of Yosemite falls, the largest in North America, with a few hundred other people!  Maybe not that many, but because it was a Sunday, way more than I would have liked! Although I did get a huge kick out of this gal and her puppy.  Not sure he appreciated the view!

Again, check out the tiny dots on the rocks at base of falls, and see the guy at bottom left....gives an idea of how big a drop just this lower section of the falls is! 

The entire fall is 2450 feet, and quite a sight. 

I have to say, this park was nowhere near as organized as the Grand Canyon, and things were not always clearly marked. The free shuttle bus only goes to three sights, and the rest of the 21 stops are all lodges and delis, and one housekeeping area, which I am still a bit confused about!  We got on the bus to go to our car, and ended up being on for 1/2 hour when we were confused about parking areas, and had to go through all 21 stops!  Would have been much faster to walk! But at least we were in the AC on such a warm day.