Crinkly's Good Ole American Family Road Trip Day 22: A long walkabout on the drive-about (9/18/15)

Wake up with no specific agenda and eventually grab some breakfast at the diner on-site (12$ pp but we made it work) and then we head into the park. Head up towards glacier point, stop on the way to see the tunnel view, which was gorgeous, and then we continue up to the point. After walking around there, my dad and I decide to go on a walk on part of the high sierra loop trail - believe it was called the panorama trail (~9miles total).

Nice view as we drive up to glacier point.

Crinkly taking his first of many pictures with half dome.

Let it flow! Let the water flow!

Panoramic view from glacier point.

That is a long waterfall. Good to see the waterfall we saw yesterday wasnt indicative of all the waterfalls here.

Crinkly really does love the half dome formation.

Damn anti-vaxxers :) But seriously, never thought I would ever see a sign warning me against the plague.

Crinkly sees where we are going and realizes its a long way down. Beautiful but far.

Sierra Nevadas in all their glory.

Before we get down, this is where we are starting from. 

Crinkly viewing half dome through the trees.

Crinkly taking a picture with I believe half dome in the background and a small waterfall in the foreground.

Found a little water source as we ventured down this path.

Panoramic shot as we found a great lookout on the trail.

Crinkly wanted to climb the mountain. We had other plans. 

My dad letting Crinkly see over the shrubs at the valley in front of us.

Crinkly and I modeling for the National Parks.

Liberty Cap up close and personal.

Crinkly was about to blow away so we anchored him down. Lets go take a dip in the swimming hole back there.

My pops on his walk about. 

Life is about the journey, not the destination. Crinkly is glad he came on today's journey for sure.

View down the waterfall. Yall know how hard it was for me to try and get this. 

Such a healthy looking rodent. Beautiful creatures big and small on this trip.

Crinkly meeting a furry lil friend. Although, we were told to keep our distance before :)

Liberty Cap and half dome hanging out on such a glorious day. Crinkly chilling in the shade enjoying the view.

The Vernal Fall is such  a nice waterfall. Crinkly is almost as big as it.

That is the waterfall we are going to. Getting close.

Crinkly and I are watching the water crest over and begin its descent. 

Crinkly and I like this waterfall a little more than the one from yesterday.

Crinkly and I posing with the rock tunnel.

My dad and Crinkly as we come down the death steps (these werent the worse ones) with a beautiful valley in front of us. Almost to the end me thinks.

Trail being 213 miles? Crinkly says no. This is the sign at the end of our trail coming down from glacier point. Nice little 8 mile walk.

Sun setting on El Capitan. Views like this is why I will always love the mountains.

It is a gorgeous walk, but long and not all downhill, despite what the altitude from the start will have you think. These waterfalls on the walk had water falling over them which were pretty and dad waded into one of the pools on top of the falls with the water looking pretty nice. We make our way down and eventually get to the last waterfall, the vernal falls, and as we walked down, it was treacherous; steps of rock for a few 1 or 2 hundred feet down which made our walk down very rough. As we were walking down, we realized that is not a hike we would want to do on  a regular basis. We eventually got down to the car and head to the curry village to get pizza and beers after a long hike. After our meal, we head back to the lodge and my dad and I head to the spa to relax after the long day. Felt nice. After a little bit of time there, we head back to the room, get our showers and make some plans for the next couple stops after Yosemite