Yosemite Day 3

Our last day in Yosemite was July 8th, which was my friend Shelley's 50th birthday. We decided to go to Glacier Point, which we had never seen before. We stopped at the Tunnel View and were disappointed. When we were there two years ago it was GORGEOUS but there had been record rainfall and the waterfalls were incredible. This is a dry year and there was smoke from a forest fire northeast of the park which made everything look hazy and a little blurry. That was disappointing, but it was still beautiful and we had a nice day together.
Shelley took this picture of all of us together; an amazing feat! L to R, A, DH, D, Me and J. Everyone wore their new 2007 Old Navy flag shirts. We gave one to Shelley for her birthday so she could officially be one of the family. We should have given her one that said "I survived the L's Family Vacation 2007"! LOL
We stopped in a beautiful meadow full of wildflowers. I wish I had a true closeup lens for my camera. Some of the blossoms are small so hard to get truly nice photos even with 300mm telephoto.
Here is Shelley out in the field. We have the same camera and lens.

You probably can't see but there are three or four different types of wildflowers growing alongside this old, fallen tree.
Another perspective of the meadow showing the beautiful Evergreens at the edge.
A special treat were these little white orchids!
And patches of Shooting Star, which is always pretty and showy.
One of the things I love about Yosemite are all the coniferous trees. I lost count of how many species there are.

Everywhere you look there is granite! In some areas it looks kind of white and at first you think snow...then you see it's all exposed granite!
A different view of Half Dome and two waterfalls in the distance.

This is a little blurry because of the haze from the smoke and because I zoomed in. I wanted to see the source of the waterfall. Can you see the green lake in the distance?
I thought this view made Half Dome look like a big toe sticking up!
More views of Yosemite and Half Dome. If you looked directly down here you would see Camp Curry.

Hubby and A taking pictures and looking at all the pretties.
I took this picture as we were walking to the trail at Glacier Point. L to R Shelley, A, Hubby, D and J.
Yet another view of Half Dome. When it sticks up right in the middle, it is hard to leave out of the picture.
Looking down into Yosemite Valley where we had driven earlier. The brown snake winding through is the Merced River.
Here is a view of the famous Ahwanhee Hotel. Rooms begin at about $500 a night. We didn't stay there.

Looking down at the rafters keeping cool on the Merced River in the Yosemite Valley.
This is a granite outcropping overlooking the Yosemite Valley. A lot of famous pictures were taken there.
It was a long, hot drive home. We stopped at a rest area and I found these sunflowers.
We had seen lots of them growing along Hwy 99 but of course nowhere to stop to photograph so this was a nice surprise.
And there were some lovely yellow Canna lillies there as well. It was a nice way to end the weekend.

I still haven't posted pics from the first day in Yosemite. I'll try to do that soon.