Roscue2
Active member
I was looking through my photo albums on the PC and decided to upload a few from last year. The first 3 are from Yosemite Valley. I took them while attempting to hike the 6.5 mile valley half loop trail. I was unable to finish the hike, partially because of the many photos I took, and partially because of getting somewhat lost. But no worries! I was never more than a few hundred yards from Yosemites main road, and had plenty of food and water. Just wanted to find the trail, which I did after about an hr of walking along the road and forest in the right direction I should add.
After getting back on track, I decided to stop at one of the Merced Rivers beaches, and this little duck decided to swim within literally 3 ft of my feet. The photo was taken when it was cleaning itself, so is somewhat blurry.
The 4th photo is from the Sierra foothills, and is the climax of a 2 mile hike. It is, as you can see, a cave that goes through the side of a hill with a bedrock floor. The hiking trail actually goes over the hill in order to get down to the small stream to view the cave. You can also turn before the hill and go a little downhill to reach the exit of the cave, which is much larger than the entrance. Sorry, but don't have a good photo of the exit. I decided to swim through the cave, which many do, but did not realize that just a little deeper into the cave than can be seen in the photo, the floor drops off to an unknown depth. Needless to say, my backpack and cell phone got a little wet, but thankfully the rice on cellphone trick works wonders.
The cave itself is about 200-250 ft in length, and at the time of yr I went, the cave ceilling was around 20 ft above the water in the middle, but then evened out to about 8 ft at the other end, where the floor of the cave magically reappeared. Also, there is a bend in the cave, which is why in the photo the cave looks pitch black. Once around the bend you can see sunlight again. Interestingly enough, at the far end of the cave there is some groundwater coming into the stream from above.
As for the history of the cave, from what I remember reading on the trailhead sign, the land was once used to raise cattle, and the families children would often play in the cave. It was eventually donated to the county, and made into a remote park so to speak. Today, many locals come down to the cave to go swimming on hot summer days.
Although I did get my cellphone wet, I did enjoy that hike, and hope to do it again someday and take more photos of it.
After getting back on track, I decided to stop at one of the Merced Rivers beaches, and this little duck decided to swim within literally 3 ft of my feet. The photo was taken when it was cleaning itself, so is somewhat blurry.
The 4th photo is from the Sierra foothills, and is the climax of a 2 mile hike. It is, as you can see, a cave that goes through the side of a hill with a bedrock floor. The hiking trail actually goes over the hill in order to get down to the small stream to view the cave. You can also turn before the hill and go a little downhill to reach the exit of the cave, which is much larger than the entrance. Sorry, but don't have a good photo of the exit. I decided to swim through the cave, which many do, but did not realize that just a little deeper into the cave than can be seen in the photo, the floor drops off to an unknown depth. Needless to say, my backpack and cell phone got a little wet, but thankfully the rice on cellphone trick works wonders.
The cave itself is about 200-250 ft in length, and at the time of yr I went, the cave ceilling was around 20 ft above the water in the middle, but then evened out to about 8 ft at the other end, where the floor of the cave magically reappeared. Also, there is a bend in the cave, which is why in the photo the cave looks pitch black. Once around the bend you can see sunlight again. Interestingly enough, at the far end of the cave there is some groundwater coming into the stream from above. As for the history of the cave, from what I remember reading on the trailhead sign, the land was once used to raise cattle, and the families children would often play in the cave. It was eventually donated to the county, and made into a remote park so to speak. Today, many locals come down to the cave to go swimming on hot summer days.
Although I did get my cellphone wet, I did enjoy that hike, and hope to do it again someday and take more photos of it.