The "incomparable" Yosemite Valley smolders gently in the morning, seen from the exit of Wawona Tunnel.

Aerial photo of Yosemite Valley, with El Capitan in foreground to the left

As Beavis might say, "Fire! Fire! Fire!"

This area outside the valley burned out of control several years ago, but is now recovering.

Down in the valley near Cathederal Rocks, they were having a controlled burn today.

In the old days, they would put out all fires ASAP. Now they intentionally set fires periodically and allow them to burn up the underbrush, thereby preventing catastrophic blazes later.

The firefighters got a kick out of reading about themselves in the newsletter Debbie showed them.

(singing) "Sm-o---ke, on the high--way. Nnnh, nnh, nhhhh,, n, nh, nn, nnnhh"

WOW, great shot! (photo of a photo...)

Interesting maps showing how often different areas have burned since 1930

Bridal Veil falls, weeping slightly

There's just not much water to fall in the Fall

North Dome

North Dome, with the Royal Arches below

North Dome, from Curry Village

Dazzling multicolored meadow

Curry Village has a city of permanent tents to house the throngs of tourists

These things as pretty deluxe, yet manage to not totally disupt the natural vibe of the valley like, say, a Motel 6 might.

Yet another Coke machine attempting to blend in with nature, this one featuring a popular way to tour the park: on bicycles.

There were a few skaters around. We didn't think to bring ours, but maybe next time.

Pretty stone bridge at Happy Isles

Weird, emerald colored water

Quite a mob joined us on our trek up to Vernal Falls

After climbing steadily for a couple of miles, we got a glimpse of our destination. Lovely.

There was much congestion of people going up and coming down from the falls, reminding one of that fateful day on Mount Everest a few years back. And this was a weekday in the Fall. Hard to imagine what the Summer crowds must be like here.

Perched atop a rock, the happy couple poses with Vernal Falls

During the Spring snowmelt, this would be much wider.

Nice rainbow in the spray

Cascading over the edge

As seen from the top

The so-called Emerald Pools, a bit low this time of year

Hold on, I think there's a half-naked woman down there (perfect application for my 10x optical zoom). Not shown is the fully-naked man who was photographing her close by. Not sure why they thought this was an appropriate spot to nude up. There might be minors around here, ya know?

"Whoa, is that a naked woman?!" (This little hiker was actually looking back for the rest of his group, which he'd left in the dust climbing the steps).

Another wooden bridge above Emerald Pools leads up to the next set of falls. Maybe next trip we'll try a longer hike.

Debbie starting back down the 600 (?) stone steps

The steps are beautifully cut into the walls of the canyon

Prancing down, she goes.

Spotting the Yosemite Post Office, Debbie mails a dollar to Steve Grassbaugh and scores some "interesting postmark" karma points

Half Dome looms above, in respectful, soft focus

Half Dome, with a meadow in front

One can only assume this one's called Viagra Rock

Upper Yosemite Falls, almost totally dry at the moment. But you could see the outline of where it "should be" which was pretty interesting in itself.

Lower Yosemite Falls, also pretty dry. Funny how that works.

El Capitan, looking rather vertically challenging

The Nose of El Capitan

Over 2000 feet of sheer granite

Little car. Big rock.

We observed several tiny ants inching their way up the rock. Turned out they were humans, and most would take several days to reach the top.

Binoculars revealed the gear bags and portaledges used for overnight camping on the side of the face

El Capitan, continued

One last shot of The Cap'n, with matching trees sloping in front

Across the valley, the Cathedral Rocks emerged from the afternoon smoke

Perfect reflection of Cathedral Rocks

The Valley was still smokin' as the sun started to set on our day

Wild colors appeared in the sky

We were awed by the surreal lighting as we approached Glacier Point at dusk

Half Dome from Glacier Point, looking like a pastel painting

Debbie peers down into the Valley far below. The Royal Arches dominate the opposing wall, and the river is visible, snaking along the remarkably flat floor.

A thousand points of light appear as the Valley comes to life at night

Our second day visiting the park started off in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia

Uber-gnarly root system exposed

Helpful graphic showing how squirrels are supposed to carry around the relatively small Sequoia cones and spread the species

This particular squirrel apparently didn't understand which cones exactly he was supposed to be moving around, and picked a whopper

The Grizzly Giant is the biggest Sequoia in Yosemite

That's a good, solid base for a tree

This guy had particularly muscular arms too, some of them bigger around than the trunks of the "regular" 200+ foot tall trees nearby.

A tree of many arms

Carey twirls under "the other tunnel tree"

It's called "other" in relation to its more famous cousin in Sequoia National Park. That one fell over in the 1960's though, but this guy is still going strong.

Splendid display of Fall colors on the approach to the Ahwanee Hotel.

The Ahwanee Hotel, which is one of the world's classic, beautiful places to stay, nestled under the Royal Arches.

We went for the famous Ahwanee Brunch, which is so popular it requires reservations. Needless to say, we pigged out in grand style.

Debbie sleeping off her epic brunch

This has got to be one of the most scenic tennis courts anywhere

Nobody was playing however, too busy brunching and/or getting married, I guess.

They've put nice wooden paths across some of the meadows to help keep them from getting trampled.

Meadow. Rock. Scissors?

The Royal Arches, which are just above the Ahwanee Hotel

Meadow. Dome. Half Dome.

The Ahwanee from high up on Glacier Point

Vernal Falls from Glacier Point

There is a famous picture of some folks dancing on this rock thousands of feet above the Valley floor back in the 1920s or so

The aptly-named Half Dome

With binoculars we spotted a few climbers on Half Dome, which is a shorter, but in some ways even more challenging climb than El Capitan

The layers of rock at the top might remind one of an onion

The Badger Pass ski area, awaiting some snowfall

A couple of weeks after we visited, several huge storms dumped a mountain of snow and allowed the area to open for Halloween, unusually early.