Lee Vining Area

While parked near Lee Vining, we made a few day trips.  First we drove up Lundy Canyon and took a short walk to Lundy Lake and the biggest beaver dam I've ever seen.

I should have asked Ron to wade out into the water for a size comparison, but, while I'm sure he would have done it, I didn't think of it.  It was about 3 feet high.

We also drove the pretty June Lake loop.  We thought Silver Lake was the most scenic and there is even a campground there.

I got a charge out of our image reflected in Phil's hub cap.  I'm easily amused.

One day we drove into the northern part of Yosemite NP, through the Tioga Pass entrance.  As soon as we left Lee Vining, the scenery turned rugged.

We climbed up colorful Lee Vining Canyon to the pass at 9945 feet.

We decided to take a short hike through Tuolumne Meadows to Soda Springs.  As directed, we parked in the Lembert Dome parking area.  Lembert Dome looks like a small version of Half Dome and I bet the hike up would be much easier than the 14 mile, 4800 foot elevation gain of Half Dome.  Maybe next time.

We knew there had been snow accumulation at elevation a few days ago and I did wonder if we would be dealing with something like this.

But it was a nice walk.

After our walk, we continued west along Tioga Road.  Although this drive doesn't compare with the more popular Yosemite Valley, it is pretty dramatic in places.

We turned around at Olmsted Point where you can see a hint of Yosemite Valley and the aforementioned Half Dome.

With a telescope, you can see the hikers climbing Half Dome, but the most we could see was a line of ants.

On our way home, we stopped near the pass where we had noticed a phenomenon earlier.  For a distance of probably a mile, there were many large trees that had been torn out at the roots.

They must have had one heck of a windstorm!

Now my thought is they should harvest these trees for lumber, but because it's in a national park they probably won't.  Where's that suggestion box?

And one more lake/mountain picture that I snapped out the window.  This is Ellery Lake.

In case you're wondering, this was a couple of days ago.  We didn't crash the closed gates at Yosemite.