Half Dome top overhang, Yosemite NP

Half Dome top overhang, Yosemite NP

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

I couldn't resist blogging another picture of Yosemite.

This shot was taken at the top of Half Dome, which is not a technical climb if you go around the back. Still, it's a long day of about 16 miles round trip with a pretty intense final push up the rounded granite of Half Dome's eastern flank.

Cables allow this final climb of about 1/4 mile to be safe, but it's so steep that you feel at times like you are dangling off the edge.

The tip shown here is visible in most views of Half Dome.

Half Dome, Yosemite National Park

Half Dome, Yosemite
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

Yosemite National Park in California offers some of the most sublime and spectacular mountain scenery on earth. Yosemite was popularized by naturalist John Muir and later by photographer Ansel Adams, but the park needed no special advocates for its awesome splendor.

The hike up half dome (on the opposite side of the dome not seen in this picture) is one of the best in all the National Parks but is not for the faint of heart. The end of that hike is so steep you must pull yourself up the side of half dome via cables that are secured into the rock, though the hike does not require any technical climbing ability thanks to the cables.