When we arrived back in the valley today we found that the rain which had fallen on us had fallen as snow high up, so the Half Dome was quite a spectacular sight.
We headed off up the steep ascent to Columbia Rock, a walk up the side of the valley's Northern wall which involves 60 switchback turns and a grueling combination of steps and sandy ground. Thomas impressed us again with his staying power, getting all the way to the lookout and then continuing on to a view of the Upper Yosemite Falls.
Once we returned to gound level we walked around to the base of the Lower Yosemite Falls before following the valley wall around to the village for more hot chocolate and souvenir buying. While we were in the visitor centre we noticed that the road to the Mariposa grove of sequoias (which had been closed the previous day) had been cleared of snow and opened that morning, which made us rethink our plans for tomorrow.
Feeling recharged, we caught the bus to the Eastern end of the valley and wandered around the mirror lake meadow, spotting deer and squirrels among the mossy rocks. We had dinner at Yosemite Lodge before driving back up to the lookout above Bridal Falls to catch the alpen glow as the sun went down.
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