Posts Tagged ‘National Park’

glacier point.

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Today, we visited Glacier Point. It is definitely well worth a visit… especially if you’ve hiked to the top of Half Dome. From Glacier Point, you can see a panoramic view of the valley floor, Nevada and Vernal falls, and the many granite rock peaks of Yosemite. The view was definitely a testament to our 16 mile hike from the valley floor to the top of Half Dome.

The whole crew.

My brother got really excited about the prospect of a BBQ at our cabin during our half dome hike, so the next day we bought a few brats and sausages and had a mini cook out. Despite my mom’s fear that we would attract bears with the smell of food, we didn’t attract one bear. In fact, I didn’t see any the entire trip.  Maybe that’s for the better!  During the whole trip I kept confusing what to do when I see a bear with what to do when I see a mountain lion.

My brother BBQ-ing.

great smoky mountains national park

Monday, June 29th, 2009


Last weekend Kelvin and I made a quick trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee/North Carolina. I couldn’t believe how gorgeous the scenery was. The smoky appearance of the mountains is caused by evaporation from the trees.

We got a chance to hike part of the Appalachian Trail. I was surprised to learn that the National Park has a higher biodiversity than the entire northern Europe. The trails were nicely covered and really well maintained.

We woke up an hour before sunrise to catch the mountain ranges at their smokiest. It seems like there were a ton of awesome hikes there. We only had a chance to hike two, Charlies Bunion and Chimney Top, but I would love to go back and explore more of the Great Smoky Mountains.

On our one night stay, we got a chance to check out Gatlinburg, TN, a funny little tourist town just outside of the National Park. It was a fun trip to explore the candy shops, souvenir shops, and other little touristy gimmick stores around town.