Yosemite 2006
Memorial day weekend 2006 was scheduled as a long weekend campout with our Boy Scout Troop at Yosemite. Unfortunately, our campsite was underwater for the second year in a row and the campout was canceled. A day trip was organized to hike to Glacier Point. I had the good fortune to have a coworker who had an extra campsite reserved for the weekend and he allowed me to snap it up. My son and I met the troop at Glacier Point and I hiked down to the valley with them. My son and my wife went back to the campsite to prepare dinner and wait for me.
	View of Half Dome from Glacier Point. Yes, those are people on top and yes, that is a lot of snow!
	Same view but widened to show some of the valley.
	A quick walk down the trail from Glacier Point nets a great view of Glacier Point from the trail. It was a little overcast, misty and in the 40's.
	A little farther down the trail and you get an awesome view of Upper and Lower Yosemite falls. As the trail switchbacks down into the valley, every turn lays out another perspective on the valley. In about 30 minutes we saw the weather shift several times. The mist turned into sleet, then snow, then mini hail. The temp dropped at least 20 degrees then like a switch was flipped and the sun came out.
	Back on the valley floor, looking up at Upper Yosemite falls. Notice the beautiful blue sky.
	Sunday morning, o'dark o'clock, my son and I start out for Half Dome. A brisk mile hike from the campsite gets us to the trial head. 8.2 miles to the top from here. That makes the days round trip about 19.4 miles, probably closer to twenty since we would take the John Muir trail on the way back down.
	View from the top of Nevada Falls after climbing the mist trail. There was a cool wind blowing the mist across the trail. We powered up the steps to get out of the spray.
	A few hours later we are at the top of Sub Dome looking at the cables and our destination.
	Half way up the cables looking out at the valley. The guide books quote angles from 30-60 degrees for the slope on the cables. The camera was held dead level here, looks about like 45 degrees to me.
	On top, we made it, again. We reached the summit in just about four hours which seems to be about average for me. This was my third trip and my sons second. The amount of snow on top was surprising since it had been quite warm for the last couple of weeks.
	A view of diving board rock from the very top of Half Dome. The very first time I took this picture, I was standing on top of a huge rock, standing right at the edge. There was a woman sitting at the other end of the rock and she stood up to leave while I was taking the picture. My end of the rock dropped about six inches. After hiking up for the last four hours my legs were a little rubbery so it took a long couple of seconds before I was sure I wasn't going to fall over the edge. The lady was so white and she sat back down so fast I almost fell off laughing.
	My son in his cloak.
	Me, obviously I didn't get enough exercise on the hike up.
	We saw this little grey fox on the way back down. My son saw him way off in the distance and we watched as he sauntered on down the hill. Times like this make me glad I have a good zoom lens.
	A nice view of Nevada Falls from the John Muir trail as we head back down.
	Hard to believe this is the same day as when we started. Blue sky and big fluffy white clouds, a far cry from the mornings weather.