On the way back from Lembert Dome, we stopped at the Yosemite Chapel. This is the oldest building in the valley, built in 1879. Since we arrived in Yosemite I had been struggling to photograph Yosemite Falls. This has to be one of the more challenging subjects I've shot. Yosemite Falls is the highest measured waterfall in North America. The light almost never shines on the entire falls. And the Upper and Lower falls are difficult to capture in the same image. Below, only the Upper falls are visible.

I was very pleased with the way this picture turned out. Had their been some cloud cover above the falls, it might have been perfect! When Ashlyn and I jumped out to capture this image, we moved pretty quickly. Once I set the tripod down and framed the shot, I glanced down and realized my ankles were covered in mosquitoes. Ashlyn ran back to the car. This was my quickest photo shoot of the trip! And even though I moved quickly, I counted almost 40 mosquito bites when I got back to the hotel.

I wasn't overly pleased with the image below, but it does show the Upper and Lower Falls together. Notice how at the time of day that I shot this, most of the falls were in shadow.

We dropped the girls off with mom and she took them to the hotel pool. Sarah and I decided to continue our exercise for the day and rented bikes. I didn't stop and take too many pictures during the ride, but did see this nice view of Half Dome.

We biked to Mirror Lake which is really a swimming hole. There were a lot of people playing in the water.

At the end of the bike ride, we decided to go ahead and make the Lower Yosemite Falls hike. It is exhilarating to get up close and realize what you are looking at is such a small part of this waterfall. There were a ton of people on this hike and evidently none of them can read the signs that say don't climb on the rocks. In reality there were probably about 10 people in this image on the rocks below the falls. I removed them in Photoshop.

Notice what is next to the steeple in the image below. That's right - it's one of those mosquitoes that enjoyed me for a snack. Pretty funny that there were so many flying around that I accidentally took a picture of it.

Sarah visited with the Park Rangers and mapped out some hikes that were challenging, yet kid friendly. We set off early Friday morning to get started on this one, passing Tenaya Lake along the way.

Lembert Dome was a fun and challenging hike. The trail head starts at about 8500 ft reaching an elevation just over 9000 ft. The first half of the trail, leading to Dog Lake, was mostly uphill. Okay...Okay...I'm out of shape and was winded...I'll admit it.

We stopped at Dog Lake for a short picnic lunch.

One of the reasons we chose this route is because you start at one trail head and end at a different one (shuttle bus back to the car). On the way down from Dog Lake, we detoured and hiked to the top of Lembert Dome. Aside from Yosemite Valley of course, this was one of the best views of the park. Standing over 9000 ft, the air was cold and windy but the views were awesome!