There is little as dramatic as the entrance to Yosemite Valley. The highway drops from Tuolumne at 8,500 feet heading west and then turns along the Sierras and up the valley at around 4,000 feet. At a high corner you get your first distant views, and already you can see El Capitan at the entrance framing Half Dome, glowing in the evening sun. Each turn brings you closer and reveals another dramatic view. Wow.
We head first to check into our tent at Curry Village, stopping only for a few photos. Curry Village is a residential area of hundreds of permanent tents nicely tucked under the Ponderosa pines. You can't park by your tent, so we drop all our gear and food nearby, carry it in to the tent, put the food in the bear box, and then drive the car to the parking lot. With cheek to jowl tents and remote parking we kept our bikes at the tent. Traffic is pretty heavy in Yosemite Valley, so we rode our bikes everywhere. There were small afternoon traffic jams every day as people tried to check out and leave the park, but there are extensive bike and pedestrian paths, so biking is usually faster. In the village, folks were very considerate - it was amazingly quiet at night for the density.
We got dinner reservations that night at the Ahwahnee, and so got to explore it even if we didn't stay in it, and had a pretty good (and expensive - no surprise) meal for a national park concession. Of course the architecture and scenery were spectacular. We took an easy hike along the river and around the the Awahnee after dinner, then jumped on our bikes and to our tent in the dark. It was fun to see the domes in the afterglow and barely perceive the band of asphalt ahead in the sea of dark trees. Ironic that the next morning before dawn I was almost mowed over by a similarly lightless mountain bike on the road. I was walking the road to the nearby meadow looking at the moon above the cliffs when I heard a whirring at a crossroads. I felt more than saw the bike brush by me in the dark. Doubtless an intrepid park employee heading to work. 
We were both up at dawn (5 am) that next day to hike to the top of Yosemite Falls under the accurate assumption that most folks don't get going till 10 or 11. We hiked the easy lower falls trail and saw maybe 5 people, then headed up the 2,400 climb in 3.8 miles to the top. Looking at the shear face, it's amazing they even have a trail, but it is fully hikable (no clambering) with lots of switchbacks and armoring to sustain the steep grades with heavy traffic. We saw maybe a dozen or hikers so going up (not including the trail work crew we found already at work laying rock). It took about 3 hours up. Gorgeous views at every turn. Took way too many pictures since everywhere is world class scenery - it took a long time this week to filter them down.
With the record snow this year, the waterfalls were unusually spectacular. July falls looked like the falls in May. Someone said the park staff was seeing falls they've never seen before. And a week after we were there three people tried to cross into the one river above a falls to take a photo and were swept over and presumed dead.
At the top, you actually descend to the break of the falls. Around a rock outcrop with a pipe railing looking 1,400 feet down. Then they move the railing TO THE INSIDE OF THE PATH, with nothing on the outside but a ledge 20 feet below between you and the abyss. Pit in the stomach moment. You descend to the ledge and can see the falls rushing past then look down as it free falls. You lean over the railing with your camera to photograph the 1,400 feet to a 300 foot cascade, then 600 feet for the lower falls. With the height and the motion of the water you feel like you're flying. Incredible.
One of the more memorable hikes of my life. Despite the crowds in the valley, the occasional traffic backup, it was worth the trip. I told Ann it was like God and Disney got together and said "How about we make this amazing outdoors park with all the most incredible mountains crammed in one small valley. Yeah, and while we're at it, we'll put these unbelievable waterfalls falling from the top of them. Yeah! And then a beautiful river down the middle." In the valley in the afternoons, it felt a bit like a city where the canyon of skyscrapers had been replaced by towering granite cliffs, pines, and falls. The crowds flowed through the well designed streets and bike paths and floated in the rivers. Then you'd look up and it would take your breath away. Every time.https://picasaweb.google.com/jbp1111/YosemiteValleyJul2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCPPVnOy6nvvxiwE
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