Holiday road: Yosemite-Mariposa Grove & El Capitan

On the second day of our stay in Yosemite, we decided to drive down to Mariposa Grove which was about 45 minutes away from Yosemite village. Mariposa Grove has the oldest living Sequoia trees some of which are estimated to be in excess of 2000 years. These suckers were enormous! They are not the tallest redwoods, but they are the largest by volume – meaning (basically) they are the widest. These are so big that whole cars can drive through them (not anymore though). As you can appreciate, due to their scale, its very difficult to take a decent photo of them. If you visit yourself, I highly recommend jumping on an open-top tour bus – its so informative and really helps to explain these wonderful beings.

 

El Capitan

The next few shots are of Yosemite’s famed wall of granite – El Capitan. This vertical rock formation reaches approximately 3000 feet into the sky (that’s almost a kilometre straight up!). A favourite challenge in rock-climbing circles, El Capitan plays host to numerous thrill seekers eager to test their skills. Friends had said that the climbers look like ants, that its amazing to see them etc etc. Well, let me tell you, its no easy task trying to spot them – El Capitan is ENORMOUS! E N O R M O U S ! ! See if you can find them in the photo’s below.

Above: El Capitan. Shot on the wide end of my zoom lens. Notice a faint heart shaped indentation (just above the right tree and below the mid-line of the rock on the right hand side).

Above: Rock-climbers! These guys are just too the left of the heart shaped indentation from the previous photo. This was shot with my telephoto lens at 320mm and you can still barely see them.

Above: More rock climbers! These guys are climbing on the right hand edge of El Capitan (Note the shadow side as you reference the top photo again. They are roughly about the same height as they guys are on the centre of the face).

Above: El Capitan at sunset.