Sentinel Dome Trail

Coming back from Glacier Point, we got out for the short hike. The crowd is a lot thinner with the prospect of only a mile or so to the scenic view.

This big pine in the middle of the trail was striking, but I couldn't capture the whole thing in one shot. Jeanette and Jacenta are ahead of me on the trail. (Psst: stand in the sun!)

Tree Hugger's View

One of the big pines along the Sentinel Dome trail, up close and personal.

Sentinel Trail Wave

The smooth, undulating texture of this downed tree along the Sentinel Trail had a wonderful visual (as well as tactile) feel to it.

Snag Crack

This same smooth snag had a dramatic crack, no doubt shattered in when it hit the ground. Imagine the sound!

Snag Whorl

One of the many wood whorls around a former branch in the snag, along the Sentinel Dome trail.

Sentinel Dome Snag

This snag with bifurcated stumps and main roots caught my eye. Jeanette cheerfully provides scale.

Jacenta

We met Jacenta over the bear box we shared in Curry Village. Her husband of many years had died suddenly, 18 months earlier, and she was making a pilgrimage of sorts, to some of the places they had adventured.

After driving up to Glacier Point, we were hanging out eating grossly unnecessary ice cream treats on a sunny granite boulder, and she walked by, after hiking up to Glacier Point (on a now-closed trail), and waiting for a return bus ride, and finally giving up. We offered her a ride, and after an obligatory turn through the mob scene at Glacier Point, stopped along the way back to walk out the trail to Sentinel Dome.

This snag is on the very top of the broad dome.

Jacenta (2)

There were a dozen or more people up there, and we all had to take turns, and work crowd control to get shots of people around the snag. She took some of us on her camera; I wish I'd had her take us on ours...

Sentinel Rock

Looking down from Sentinel Dome, the lengthening evening light hitting just the edges of the "Lower Brother" ridge across Yosemite Valley.

Sentinel Rock (2)

Zoomed in. I didn't expect this shot to "work," with the late afternoon haze, but it surprised me.

Sentinel Trail

Coming back in the long light, the shadows of the many hikers' footprints on the granitic sand trail caught my eye.

Sentinel Trail Sign

Hikers had piled up a jolly cairn on the trail sign for Sentinel Dome (right) and Taft Point (left).

Yosemite Valley Sunset

Our second "Tunnel View," driving back from Glacier Pt.. and Sentinel Dome, showed the valley under a cloudless late afternoon sky. Half Dome is in the far distance.

Cathedral Sunset

Cathedral rocks in Yosemite valley, on the south side across from El Capitan.