You may go to Glacier Point and back by auto car in one day, but I advise staying over night. By all means see the sunset and sunrise from Glacier Point--and then you will feel that you really know the Valley. It lies there like a map below you. Opposite you rise the great heights of El Capitan, Three Brothers, Yosemite Point, North Dome, Basket Dome, and Watkins. The Tenaya Canyon stretches off to the northeast. To your right rise the peak of Cloud’s Rest and the bald head of Half Dome, and below them, still further to the right, is the Little Yosemite Valley, down which pour the torrents of Nevada and Vernal Falls. Both cataracts are in sight from where you stand, and you can plainly hear the sound of their waters. And beyond all these, and stretching far away to the horizon, are the snow-capped summits of the High Sierra. Beneath you, 3,200 feet down, lies the floor of the Valley. And, as the shadows of night gather, the lights of the village and the camps twinkle there like reflected stars. [Illustration: Photograph by A. C. Pillsbury SKATING ON THE MERCED] _The Giant Trees_ There are three groves of giant sequoias in the Yosemite region--the Tuolomne, the Merced, and the Mariposa--and they are visited by almost everyone who goes to the Yosemite Valley. The Tuolomne and Merced groves may be seen in a single day’s trip, for they are not far apart and neither of them is large. The Merced Grove contains forty giants, the Tuolomne twenty, the chief of which is the Dead Giant. Cars drive through this monster just as they do through the Wawona tree in the Mariposa Grove. The ride to the Tuolomne Grove is very picturesque and thrilling, offering one special point of advantage--New Inspiration Point, from which, in the afternoon, Bridal Veil Falls may be seen playing through constantly shifting rainbows. Mariposa Grove was discovered in 1857, and is the largest grove of its kind in the world. It contains more than five hundred monster sequoias, the largest of which is the famous Grizzly Giant, 204 feet in height and about 30 feet in diameter at the base. You may be told that this is the largest tree in the world. That is not true. There are several larger sequoias. The General Grant tree in General Grant Park is 264 feet in height and nearly 35 feet in diameter. The largest known tree is the General Sherman in the Sequoia National Park, which measures 280 feet high and is 36 feet and 5 inches in diameter at the base. You may be told also that these great trees are seven and even eight thousand years old. Take that statement with consideration. The sequoias are very hardy vegetables, and are undoubtedly the oldest things living, but the scientists tell us that the veteran trees run in age from 1,500 to 2,500 years, and that the oldest tree, of whose age record there is no question, is somewhat over 3,000 years old. John Muir states that he has found one tree for which he claims an age of 4,000 years.