We decided to spend our last full day at Yosemite driving all the way back through the park back to Tuolumne Meadow where we came in. On the way into the park, we drove by a road that said it went to the Wawona Library. So, our of curiosity we went to check it out. Turns out there is a library there because there is an entire neighborhood there. There's even a school. It felt a little bit like we shouldn't be there but there was a park trail at the end of the road...
After that bit of a "rabbit trail", we made our curvy and hilly way to Tuolumne Meadows and the trail to Lembert Dome and Dog Lake.
We walked up the trail to the base of what we thought was Lembert Dome. But it turned out what we thought was the top wasn't actually the top.
Where the guy is standing wasn't the top. The top is the pointy thing in the distance.
At that point it ceased to be a hike and really became more of a scramble up to the peak of Lembert Dome. But once we were up there, it was like being on top of the world!
Tuolumne Meadows with the Tuolumne River running through it
Mt Dana in the distance
Turns out there isn't much room up at the top of the world. But there was a nice woman who took some great shots of us up there...
We're so far up, we could see the pyramids in Egypt... LOL
While I was absolutely dreading getting down, I knew I couldn't stay up there forever. Did I crab-walk down a bit of the really steep parts? Maybe??? But I got down and I didn't die... ;)
Then we walked the rest of the trail up to Dog Lake. It was a really peaceful place to rest and have a snack before heading back to the car for lunch...
It would be the perfect kayak lake if it wasn't a mile and a half from the truck
On the other side of the parking lot was a trail out to Lyell Canyon. Unfortunately we didn't have time to do the entire 8-mile hike but we did have time to walk out to Twin Bridges on the Lyell Fork. Turns out it was one of the prettiest hikes we did...
I noticed that we could see people walking up to the top of Lembert Dome. Looking at it from afar made me pretty impressed that I made it up and down from the top... :)
Both the Dana Fork and the Lyell Fork were beautiful and full of lovely little swimming and fishing holes.
I just love dead trees and big rocks!
It was so pretty when we got to the Twin Bridges, it was really hard not to keep going and see where the trail led...
Unfortunately, there wasn't time to explore more of the meadows because we read that Tunnel View at sunset was spectacular.
Tuolumne Meadows from Tioga Road
More of the meadows
We made pretty good time, so we had time to go down El Portal Road for a little bit. The Merced looks so different there...
Tunnel View is always pretty but I was really excited for the sun to set...
We still had quite a bit of time until sunset which meant we had time to explore a long dark side-tunnel we saw every time we drove through the Wawona Tunnel. What was at the end of that tunnel with the bright light at the end?
Maybe walking through a road tunnel on a narrow "sidewalk" wasn't a good idea, but we're always up for an adventure...
At the end of the tunnel was this gate and this view...
We did spend our last night at Yosemite watching the sun set at Tunnel View. Unfortunately it wasn't as spectacular as expected. It was still a great view, though...
