Near Yosemite

Spent this weekend at Hetch Hetchy - the big water reservoir used by San Francisco. There is a 3 bedroom cabin along the water there. My sister and her husband and kids went up and brought me and a few people along.

The granite peaks are huge and shoot up extremely steep above the valley, waterfalls dig through the rock. The whole thing is a glacier valley filled with water since it was dammed 90 years ago or so.

Took my 4 year old niece up on a hike to a water tower, a tough climb that forced me to carry her at points and required some semi-tough bouldering. Some good mountaineering for a little kid.

I slept out on the porch, the water was far below and swifts chirped all night. Pretty cool. A grosbeak flew into the window and died. Saw a 3 foot gopher snake, western whiptail lizards and w. fence lizards.