Yosemite 2 of 3

This rock formation is called Half Dome. It stands at 8,842 feet and is Yosemite's most distinguishing monument. It is a few miles away from where I was standing. They say in the summer it is crowded with rock climbers.

We drove through about 5 tunnels. Some were not trimmed out inside with bricks, but just jagged rock. That was pretty. It also made you realize you were really in a tunnel.

This pic is not in the park, but Moccasin, CA. This is the Hetch - Hetchy pipeline system. The town is owned by the city and county of San Fransisco and workers for the pipeline live there.

In the town of Moccasin, you can see the historic Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct, a pipeline from a reservoir in the Sierras that carries much of San Francisco's water supply, plunges into the Bay briefly next to the old Dumbarton Cut-off railroad bridge. It emerges in an octagonal structure on the end of a pier, and continues towards the city, flowing through the Pulgas Water Temple before spilling into the six-mile long Crystal Springs Reservoir, above San Carlos.

Immediately east of town, State Route 120 climbs from about 910 feet AMSL elevation to about 2,450 feet at Priest Station, California, over a distance of six miles. Old Priest Grade, a narrower road and predecessor to the current route of SR120, covers the same change in elevation over about 2.7 miles. It is common to see vehicles with smoking brakes descending the old grade. During summer, ambient temperatures can be in the 90~100°F range. In these temperatures, many vehicles overheat climbing the old grade. Locals tell stories of car accidents in history where the vehicles left the path of Old Priest Grade and tumbled into Grizzly Gulch. The hillsides are sturdy chaparral with thick vegetation. The terrain was so difficult that, in a few cases, the cars and bodies were not retrieved, some locals claim.