As distance learning and home schooling resume, online activities for students can include exploration of spectacular natural environments such as Yosemite National Park. The Virtual Yosemite in-depth online tour can help facilitate this.
In the high country just a couple of miles off the Tioga Road is one of Yosemite’s well-known High Sierra Loop camps (May Lake). At a switchback near the top of the May Lake trail, hikers can spot what appears to be the face of a
on a large boulder by the side of the trail. A combination of the rock’s natural clefts and what appear to be brown iron (rust) deposits produce this natural illusion.
Most hikers pass it by, few of them probably even bothering to look up as they’re walking to spot it. But once it does catch your eye, the shape is an uncanny replica of a lion’s face. It is more easily spotted when hiking up the trail than it is coming down.
It’s definitely something that will keep younger children engaged and looking for as they accompany you on this relatively short, but steep hike to the lake.
There are also spectacular views of Yosemite’s high country along the way, including this one, where Cathedral Peak, Tressider Peak, Tenaya Peak (and Lake), Sunrise Mountain, Mt. Clark, Clouds Rest, Half Dome, and others can be seen.
