| US West Coast Escapade 2001 |
14th May 2001 Monday
| Day In Brief: |  Inspiration Point, Tunnel View |  Mariposa Grove |
| � | (South of Yosemite Valley) | |
| � |  Tuolomne Meadows | |
| � | (North of Yosemite Valley) |
Inspiration Point
| Me and C on the granite cliff at tunnel view of Inspiration Point. Note the brillant clear black sky in the background. |  |
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 | Credits for this photo goes to Robin Low |
Mariposa Grove
| One of the draws of Yosemite's South end is a stand of some 500 giant sequoias. Mariposa Grove contains many trees more than 2 000 years old. |
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| In front of the Fallen Monarch, a giant sequoia that fell 500 years ago. Contrast the size of the base of the sequoia against us!! |
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In front of the Grizzly giant, a tree renowned for its huge girth and gnarled grandeur. A pity, the Grizzly Giant cannot be totally fitted into the shot. Guess we'll have to make do with the words on the signboard instead :P |
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Credits for this photo goes to JKhoo |
 | Me and C decked out in our "sunblock headdress" :P Found the sun to be unbearably hot as we walked along the trails in Mariposa Grove. Decided that our sweaters and windbreakers were a more effective shield against the powerful sun than ordinary hats. Cos hats could only offer that much shelter...but look at the surface area that our "head-dresses" cover..now there u see the difference!! :) |
| Credits for this lovely photo goes to Robin Low |
Tuolomne Meadows
| North of the park is Yosemite's high country, a rugged alpine country bisected by Tioga Road. Such alpine landscape only exists in the highest reaches of the Rockies, Northen Cascades and Sierra Nevada.
"From Crane Flat, we picked up Tioga Road for the the 56km drive to Tuolomne Meadows. The winding roads picked up elevation as we go along. Left over snow from last winter, snow melt and bare trees dotted the sides of the road, making it a charming drive as we climbed.
Our first stop along the way was a large turnout overlooking an enormous expanse of granite, which includes the back side of Half Dome, one of the popular icons of Yosemite- Olmsted Point. Found the granite cliffs to be devoid of much vegetation, winds were rather strong as well, brr...cold!" |
 | The 3 of us at Olmsted Point. When the wind blows, guess it's not hard to tell from our expressions, who's taking the cold winds well, and who's not..:P |
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Credits for this shot goes to JKhoo |
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Credits for this shot goes to JKhoo |
| "As we proceeded further along Tioga Road, the road brought us gradually downhill and passed Tenaya Lake. Tenaya lake was absolutely beautiful. A large clear body of water locked in the embrace of the mountains of the Sierra Nevada. Stands of coniferous trees lining the boundary of the lake, gentle waves rippling across its mirror-like surface as the wind blew. The water was ice-cold too....as we found out not too soon after stopping...after getting sprayed with water from the lake by ? while taking these shots;P" |
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| "Tioga Road finally took us to Tuolomne Meadows. This "meadow in the sky" sits at 8 600 ft (2 621m) in one of the most picturesque alpine regions of the world. The view that greeted us was awesome, scenic and breathtaking but yet serene in its own way. With the exception of the few other vehicles which passed us on Tioga Road, we were the only ones on the meadows as it was still early in the season and activities there have not started yet. Though the strong winds continued to blow, chilling me to the bone; it gave me a really wonderful and undescribable feeling, to be standing there in the middle of all that beauty, under the mild sun, against a backdrop of rather subtle colours, with the rushing sounds of the water in Tenaya creek in the background." |
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| Credits for these 2 photos goes to Robin Low Yep! I'm the one who can't take the cold well...brrr...... | |
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 | "Just realised something...why is Jkhoo found in all these photos?He's either chasing after, running from people, aiming snowballs at others or being smashed with a snowball!!?? ;p" |
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| "Guess the leftover snow in the area proved too tempting for the lot of us that we ended up throwing snowballs at each other...and chasing each other around the area ;P This is definitely one of the highlights and most unforgettable part of the entire trip! Despite the fact that it was not a real snow field and that we were only playing with some leftover snow from the previous winter since it was SUMMER!! It's one of the few times where I really put everything down and just went about ensuring that our snowballs hit the respective culprits! Had a good time and a good laugh out of all that! "Simply Unforgettable |
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