Yosemite.......respite continues

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike."

~John Muir, The Yosemite (1912)

and if Point Reyes were not enough of a blast of Nature

after 4 days there

we headed inland

to 

Yosemite National Park

This is the third time I've visited the park in less than two years 

and the first time in the spring.

California is in a drought like many of the western states

and there was not the normal abundance of snow that feeds these magnificent waterfalls

however, if there is a time to see them flow, it's in the Spring

and last week we were blessed with an abundant show of water cascading off the ridges of cliffs

Bridal Veil

Yosemite Falls

All spilling into the Merced River

(a wash of water so refreshing to see as I sit here now in central New Mexico's 

90 degree heat imagining a rain dance)

But I think the highlight for me was walking and meditating among the ancient

Giant Sequoia

and experiencing the ephemeral blooms of the Pacific Dogwood 

after 6 days in the park we sat for the last sunset of our journey......

 rested, healed and energized

"Keep close to Nature's heart...and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods.  Wash your spirit clean."

~Muir quoted by Samuel Hall Young in Alaska Days with John Muir