Christmas in Yosemite

We drove alllllllllllllllllllll day Christmas Eve to get to the Yosemite area...~15 hours total. Fortunately, it was a fairly uneventful drive...a bit of rain in Washington and parts of Oregon, then snow falling but good roads over the southern Oregon mountain passes (didn't need to put chains on the tires), and clouds in N California. We'd booked a hotel room in Mariposa, CA for two nights (a room with a fireplace!) and got in about 8 pm Christmas Eve.  I'm pretty sure this is the first Christmas Eve where I've only eaten fast food.

Steve in front of El Capitan, Yosemite NP.

Christmas morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, then drove to Yosemite, about 1 hour away. There was fresh snow in the park and it was spectacular!  We got to the park about 9:30 am and had to wait in a line a short time to get a space to put chains on the truck tires (mandatory in the park that day). It was COLD outside in the morning - maybe 15-20 - but very, very pretty.  It looked like Yosemite Valley had gotten ~12-15 inches of snow in the previous 24 hours, and it was still cold enough that it blanketed everything. As the day went on though, it started to melt off the trees a bit and it warmed up. We'd packed plenty of warm clothes though, and did some fun, short hikes and exploring in the snow. We even packed our lunch and stopped to make hot coffee for Steve.

Half dome (right), nearing sunset (above).

I've already forgotten which waterfall this is (below), dang it. It's behind Yosemite Lodge:

 
We stuck around the park after dark to try to see the full moon rise. It got really, really cold!  Steve sat in the truck, turning it on from time to time. I would jump in and out to warm up while waiting. This is a long exposure of Half Dome with the moon just about to rise on the left side:

Then this is a wider shot of the valley with the moon up and lighting things up:

I got really frustrated during this part of the day...it was dark out and really cold, but a ton of vehicles driving by. Just as a the moon was coming up, a park police officer pulled over a car in front of us, and he left his flashing lights on, which completely messed up any chance of getting good night shots of the moon!  Grrrr!