Rathbuns Go west

We had to travel windy and hilly roads along the edge of deep canyons to get to Yosemite from the West. Sandra hated it so much we tried to find a different way to leave Yosemite, but no matter which we went we had to go up or down one of these.

These four pictures are well known sites in Yosemite National Park. The family picture is at Mirror Lake. You can see a nearly perfect reflection of the mountain in the background. The double waterfalls is actually one long Waterfall, Yosemite falls. It is the third largest waterfall in the world, dropping a total of over 2400 feet. The picture at the left is El Capitan, the "largest granite monolith in the world". It rises over 3000 feet straight up. Crazy people from all over the world travel to this rock to CLIMB IT! We actually saw some people climbing it, but they were so far up they looked like little specks. The picture below is a view of the famous "Half Dome" from Washburn Point.
This picture is from the lesser known Vernal Falls. This turned out to be one of my favorite spots. My picture doesn't show the whole waterfall because I wanted to capture the beautiful rainbow in the mist of the waterfall. It was absolutely beautiful. the grass around the waterfall was the greenest green I have ever seen. This last picture is from the Big Trees of Mariposa Grove. These are Sequoia Trees which are different from the Redwood trees we saw north of San Francisco. There is a story behind why Sequoia Trees are endangered which I am sure will end up as a message illustration someday:)