Here are a couple closer looks of Half Dome from Glacier Point, high above the valley. The road up here was closed in May so I don't have any sunny shots of the monolith.
When we first saw this, our hearts immediately sank, thinking we had to hike up the right side (certainly not the left!). Everyone looked in my direction, probably thinking I was crazy for even suggesting that we should climb this thing. Fortunately, as we discovered later, we'd be going up the "backside", the side you can't see in the photo.
This looks a little better. A slight sigh of relief for us all.
So what inspired me to hike/climb this? Really, it's my cousin's fault for letting me look in his A Natural-History Guide to Yosemite and Its Trails book, where I saw a picture of the cables along the trail. Any hike with chains and ladders is almost guaranteed fun so I was naturally intrigued. I'd greatly enjoyed hiking the three Stawamus Chief peaks in Squamish and Angel's Landing in Zion National Park, both with chains and ladders so this was a natural progression. "Hey, don't you think it would be fun to hike this? It's seventeen miles!!! AND there's this cable ladder up the last 400 ft! Huh, wouldn't it be fun?" I get my first you-must-be-nuts look. However, over the next four months, three more people were convinced into being dragged up there along with me.