08/10 Yosemite National Park

Wake-up call today exceptionally at 07:30, we prefer to leave a little earlier for the National Park after reading about waiting times at the entrance and parking lots of up to 2 hours. In reality, it is not that bad. We immediately buy the annual pass 'America the Beautiful' (as we still have several national parks ahead of us) and drive into Yosemite Valley, take a tour there and then drive 45 minutes further towards Glacier Point, where we stop a mile before to hike up to 'Sentinel Dome'. Luckily, we still get one of the last parking spaces there. The tourist traffic is enormous here in the park, mainly consisting of Americans. Parking spaces at the popular spots are unfortunately very scarce, we cannot imagine what it is like on weekends.

We embark on the approximately 2-hour hike (the little one is amazingly well-behaved, but the older ones are complaining again: 'Why hiking, it's so exhausting!'). From the summit of the dome-shaped mountain, you have a fantastic view over the valley and the surrounding mountains, and you somehow don't feel like you are at an altitude of 2,500 meters. Although we know the mountains quite well, it is definitely different here than in the Alps.

Also fascinating are the large areas of burnt forests, unfortunately forest fires are not uncommon in this dry weather.

Afterwards, we drive back to the valley to the visitor center. It is really crowded here, a huge parking lot completely filled and there are real crowds at the grocery store and the grill. We had actually planned to hike to one of the nearby waterfalls. We decide to skip that and take some photos from a distance.

Instead, we play disc golf and jump into the pool at our lodge and enjoy the 'AllYouCanEat BBQ' served at the pool bar.