Yosemite: winter wonderland and so much more

I first discovered Yosemite through the beautiful black and white photographs of Ansel Adams. A very good friend of mine gave me a book with Ansel Adams’s photographs for one of the New Years. When I saw those majestic images of this place, I immediately wished to visit it. Fast forward a few years and for this winter break my small mobile family and I were in the car headed to the Yosemite National Park.

Once there, all we could think of is: “WOW”. How do you even start to describe this majestic beauty? Shaped by nature over the million of years into spectacular valleys, waterfalls and vistas and nature is not done with it yet. From the Yosemite Village to the peaks of Yosemite West, in a 30 minute timeframe you travel from one climate to another without leaving a state border or boarding a plane. It can be sunny and a great day for a hike at the valley and literally half an hour later by car and you can put your skies on and enjoy the sublime mountains of Yosemite.

It became clear why J.Muir and A.Adams used to call Yosemite a “cathedral of nature”. When beauty of nature is so inevitable, all you can do is to succumb to it and be transcended, even if just for a moment. All troubles of life somehow just don’t matter here when you come face to face with Yosemite. And then you stumble upon the Ahwahnee Hotel, a castle no less, framed by the mountains and waterfall. Some argue that the best views are from the 6th floor of the hotel, but we were too busy enjoying generous feast at the “knights room”.