USA 2016: Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park lies on the eastern edge of California, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This is one of the most beautiful natural areas in the US. We entered the park through the eastern entrance and drove through Tioga Pass. Along the way, there was plenty of beauty to see: lakes, grasslands, streams, and mountains. A deer even ran right next to the road. Bears also live in the park, although we didn't encounter any. They're dangerous, but a photo would have been nice anyway ;-) One afternoon, we took a walk through Tuolomne Grove. Along this hiking trail, we also found several sequoia trees. Gigantic, tall, and thick trees, some of which are several thousand years old. Of course, we had to take pictures of each other in front of trees where you could simply walk through a hollow. On the west side of the park, there are truly breathtaking views of the Sierra Nevada's most famous mountains: El Capitan and Half Dome, a gigantic granite sphere that appears to have been suddenly severed halfway up. At Tunnel View, we found the view that many people also know as the desktop background image of Apple's OS X operating system. After Tunnel View, we went even higher into the mountains to Glacier Point. Here, you could take a beautiful walk where you could see the entire valley. From the rim, you could see down to 1 or 1.5 kilometers, surreal when you see the cars below like tiny dots. When we got back down, we stopped briefly at the Merced River. Dad sat down on some large rocks by the river. It was a bizarre scene with the mountains in the background. Such a tiny man down there on what were, after all, quite large rocks. But insignificant compared to the mountains. We won't soon forget this.