Daily Didactic
A really wonderful day. It began in the busy Upper Pines campground a little later than it probably should have, 9:00ish or so. Theresa had identified the day's goal as something called the Panorama Trail, a south rim hike with a lot of views and ending for us at Nevada Falls. Unfortunately we were out of food and low on gas.

We swung by Degman's Deli in the village for a Deg Muffin, which we discovered yesterday and and is simply an Egg-A-Muffin on steroids. Our food issue was solved but there is no gas in the valley, so we had to motor 30 minutes down to Crane Flats and 30 minutes back. This prepared us for the 30 mile climb up out of the valley to Glacier Point. Glacier Point is the location of some of the more iconic Half Dome photos of Ansel Adams and is also the trailhead for the Panorama Trail. The trail was incredibly scenic, and there are plenty of photos below to attest to this. It took about 6 hours for the 10 and a half miles. While we had great vistas of the valley floor, Half Dome, and waterfalls on the way out, about half way back it started raining in ernest. When we got back to the bus we were both damp and happy.

We motored back down into the valley, checked into our campsite, and then bee-lined to the Curry Dining Pavilion for the all you can eat buffet. Brian gathered enough food to hold him through the summer and Theresa behaved better. Sated, we found our new campsite and called it a great day.

The bus in the actually quite busy Upper Pines campground		Brian fighting one of those Californian environmentally safe gas nozzles
We are heading to Nevada Falls, that is 5.2		Half Dome, we have a million of these now
Evidence of the 1996 fire, and Half Dome		Vernal and Nevada Falls. We are heading to the upper one.
Papa grouse		A cool tree, and Half Dome
Illilouette Falls		Water cascading over rock above the falls
Theresa reading the legend of the giant that went over the falls. Not really.		Theresa and mossy trees
Sequoia bark		The Snow Plant flower, really
Theresa and really big deadfall		Hikers lined up to take the cable steps to the top of half dome
Old runoff diversion		Water rushing over the trail
Nevada Falls and a crowd		Water just about to take a nasty plunge
Brian heading down for a view		The view
Brian hoofing it back to the bus		Signage
Nothing but joy		Fire kill in the cloud
A woodpecker pecking, in the cloud		Lonely bus, we barely found a parking space when we got there

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