Above is this weeks free desktop. This week lets travel back to one of finest parks in America, Yosemite National Park. Yosemite was formed in 1890 to preserve this spectacular portion of the Sierra Nevada which contains some truly staggering waterfalls, lush alpine meadows, stands of giant 1000+ year old sequoias, and some very intriguing, world famous formations of rock. The wonder of Yosemite has inspired poets, painters, photographers, including my favorite Ansel Adams, visitors and yes, even me. One of the most popular sections of this park is Yosemite Valley, a glacier-carved canyon which contains a couple of very famous formations (El Capitan and Half Dome) along with several beautiful waterfalls. This weeks shot is from Yosemite Valley, in September 2005 while walking on the John Muir Trail. Points of interest here, starting at the right, would be one of the awesome waterfalls in Yosemite, Nevada Falls complete with a bit of color. Before moving on, I want you to note that the waterfalls in Yosemite experience a greatly diminished flow in the Fall as they mainly draw from snow melt (it might be tough to believe, but Yosemite Falls just wasn't there). Nevada Falls in the Spring or early Summer would have a much greater flow, as would all the waterfalls. Now, moving to the left, the light colored wall of rock, which looks kind of like a shark tooth, is Liberty Cap. If look closely in the rocks below the face, between it and the falls, you can just make out a zig-zag pattern, these are switchbacks of the Mist Trail, the other wonderful trail to the top of Nevada Falls. Lastly, continuing left, the light rock formation covering the left-center of the pcture happens to be the back side of one of the most famous sights here, Half Dome. I know it doesn't look like what you're use to seeing, but that's the way it looks from John Muir. Right here I'm going to take a few sentences and expand on these two wonderful trails, the Mist and the John Muir Trails. The Mist Trail is basically a branch off of the John Muir and starts shortly after crossing the Vernal Fall footbridge (about 3/4 mile from the trailhead). It follows the Merced River back up to Vernal Falls and then contiues on to Neveda Falls. The John Muir Trail takes a different path by swithbacking it way up the southern side of the valley for a more open perspective while making its way to the top of Nevada Falls (just a note here, the John Muir is a major trail, it goes well passed Nevada Falls up to Tuolumne Meadows (about 14 miles) where it joins the Pacific Crest Trail and then both continue eastward out of the park). Now, if you were wondering, I recommend doing both of the trails here as they offer different experiences (the views from John Muir are awesome and climbing the staircase of 600 granite steps to the top of Vernal Falls on Mist will blow you away (; ), plus it's real easy to do both as they join back up just past Neveda Falls making a nice 7 mile loop hike. As always, I'd like to say that the most I ever seek with my photos is to give a brief glimpse of the wonders one can see and hope they to spark a desire for you to expand upon this in person. Without any doubt, Yosemite is a fantastic experience, one which could easily consume as much time as you're willing to give it.