Yosemite, Day 1!

We had a great day at Yosemite today. It’s a HUGE national park, so it took a while to drive in, but once we were there, we had a great time. There were several easy to moderate hikes that we wanted to try to all fit in, and we got two in, so that was a pretty good amount. There was an easy/moderate hike up the Mist Trail that could turn into a strenuous hike if you decided to go further. There were two main waterfalls, Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall, and we could hike up to the footbridge with a really good view of Vernal Fall, or hike further to the top of Vernal Fall and see Nevada Fall, or hike all the way to Nevada Fall. So we headed up towards the footbridge, and let me tell you, it was up! It was all paved, and slightly less than a mile to the footbridge, but we were increasing our elevation pretty significantly over that distance. At one point Mama polled all of us about our heart rates, and Hannah’s and hers were near their max heart rates, Glo, Mark and I were definitely in our aerobic exercise zones, and Papa’s was way down at 80 or something. Of course 

 

This was the view up the mountain towards Vernal Fall. We were pretty happy
 to get up here and enjoy the water fountain as well! 

The views were beautiful. Yosemite has these massive granite mountains, but they don’t look like mountains-the formations all look like they are made up of a single piece of granite, and seeing the striations down the entire formation is awesome. Plus, in spring and summer the snow that fell at the top of these blocks is melting, which leads to massive waterfalls and rivers coming down the mountains. So the two falls we saw today actually run pretty dry in summer and autumn. But right now they are roaring with water, and it was really magnificent to see them.

This was Mt Broderick, at 7,000 feet!

Liberty Cap, at "only" 6900 feet at the top, with Nevada Fall next to it.

Half Dome, one of the iconic granite domes in Yosemite.
It was closed due to snow while we were there,
but you use cables to get to the top. Maybe next time!

Once we got to the footbridge, I wanted to keep going, and Mark, Papa, and Glo joined me. The trail at that point changed from asphalt rolling up and downs to straight up, with granite stairs leading to the top of Vernal Fall. The map said something about 600 stairs, and let me tell you, you felt those stairs. These were tall steps that required some significant push off, and we were huffing and puffing pretty soon on our way up. Plus, as we got closer to the fall, the river and the waterfall were sending up some serious spray, so we were pretty wet once we got to the top. But it was beautiful looking out into the valley and seeing the water rushing down.

 

The spray coming off the fall and river were intense!
We were soaked by the time we got to the top. 

These were the granite steps to the top of Vernal Fall

Intrepid explorers headed to Vernal Fall

After that, we took a moment to appreciate a pool of water (Emerald Pool) and the streams of water rushing over this broad, gradual sheet of granite (the Silver Apron), before we kept hiking up the trail, but not all the way to Nevada Fall. Instead, we hiked another half a mile or so up to connect to the John Miur trail, which is a 211-mile trail that starts in Yosemite, then goes south through the Sierra Nevadas and a couple of other national parks to finish at the top of Mount Whitney, which is the tallest mountain in the contiguous US. We hiked down that trail, which was a bunch of switchbacks, to reach the footbridge again and link up with Mama and Hannah. Glo and I wanted to hurry down to them, so we ended up trail running some of the last mile or so, which was pretty cool. I bought some trail running shoes before this trip, and they did pretty well! Running down those kinds of elevations would definitely take some getting used to, but it was fun to do.

 

Emerald Pool and the Silver Apron.

Mark could seriously fall asleep anywhere. It was impressive!

Glo, sketching the Emerald Pool. Glo wasn't thrilled about the
raggedy state of her hair thanks to the spray!

Mark and me, with Mark showing the "cool"
way to wear a fanny pack :-)

Glo was a GREAT hiking buddy!

After that, I think all of us were pretty exhausted, so we trudged down to the van and headed off to one other short hike. There is another set of falls, the Lower and Upper Yosemite Falls, and the lower one has a nice, flat loop that was basically a mile and took a half hour to finish. It was a pretty fall to look at, and we got the whole spray experience, but it just didn’t feel the same since we hadn’t worked quite as hard to get there. Bill Bryson, in his book “A Walk in the Woods,” wrote about how some Americans approach hiking as getting out of their car, walking fifty feet onto the trail, and then turning around and saying they had gone “hiking.” This one kind of felt like that. However, the woods walking to the lookout of the falls were pretty, and it was a relaxing time after our pretty legit hike.

Some people were tired at the end of the day. :-)

 

At that point, we headed back to the hotel, where I think the biggest complaint was that we had to pay for Wifi and there was no service, thanks to those darn mountains! But we had a delicious dinner, showered, and relaxed. It was a great day experiencing Yosemite, and I can’t wait until tomorrow!