Yosemite Valley

Memorial Weekend is one of the two worst weekends to visit Yosemite NP (the other one being 4th of July weekend). During these two weekends the park is insanely busy with tourists, which takes away from the experience. Suffice to say that the only accommodation that I could find for that weekend was more than 40 miles away from the park! (Admittedly, I only decided to visit the park and look for accommodation there 3 weeks before the trip). If you can, visit the park during any other weekend, or even better on a weekday.

As I'm extremely busy with work these days, I had no other choice but to go to Yosemite NP on the Memorial weekend, if I wanted to visit the park in the prime season to see its waterfalls. Usually they run highest in May and the rumor had it that this year all waterfalls were running even higher than usual due to the largest snowpack in 30+ years. E.g. for the Merced River drainage this year's snowpack was 199% of previous years' average. In fact there was so much water in some waterfalls that it was impossible to take photos of them! I tried to get to the bottom of Bridalveil Falls to take a picture of them, but I did not manage. They were splashing so much water that it felt like being caught in the eye of a rainstorm.

I had more luck with other falls and managed to get some pretty good shots of Yosemite, Vernal, Nevada and Wapama Falls.

Yosemite Falls:

A little church in Yosemite Valley. Notice a man carrying a bridal gown:

El Capitan and Merced River:

Merced River:

Yosemite Falls:

Merced River:

Yosemite Falls:

Bartek and Half Dome: