Wandering Thoughts: Day Nine

Today was my favorite day of the trip so far. We drove to Yosemite and hiked most of the day. I wanted to hike all the way up Half Dome, but after hiking in the Grand Canyon, we decided not to. Jasmine had some issues with it and we also needed permits to hike. I knew it would be difficult to get them, so we vetoed. The trail we climbed merges with the Half Dome trail but stops at Nevada Falls, the Half Dome trail goes up another four miles. We probably did almost ten miles total, and climbed to an elevation of

Yosemite is absolutely breathtaking. Steep granite mountains surround the Valley, evoking sheer wonder. The first half of the Nevada Falls trail was paved, and the terrain was less interesting, but still offered breathtaking overlooks. After that, we mostly had to take stairs hewn into the granite of the mountain. Vernal Falls was the first water fall we came to. It was probably the most impressive; completely sheer, falling into a deep pool at the bottom. Mist sprayed and created a gorgeous rainbow and the view was breathtaking. At the top of Vernal Falls we broke for lunch and had overly-friendly squirrels all up in our business. We then continued up the grueling path to get to Nevada Falls. I was surprised at how close to the top we were. We couldn’t get any closer without permits and a very steep, demanding, exposed hike. There was a lookout point over the falls and it was impossibly beautiful. The whole park seems more untouched and uncorrupted than many I’ve been to. It is just more pure. We went up river from the falls a little ways and swam in the river, the water was crystal clear, cold, and felt amazing on our sun-baked and sweaty skin.

After that, we trudged back down. There was a place where a small waterfall slipped over the smooth granite and ran into the water. It was rocky at the bottom where the fall ran, but there were a couple springs that came out of the rocks and made perfect natural slip n’ slides, so we played in there for a little while and it was a blast. We then headed back, and luckily the path down took a lot less time than the way up (probably partially due to the fact that we’d already taken advantage of every photo op. possible).

We wanted to go see the Sequoia groves, but by the time we got there it was dark, and we didn’t realize we had to take a hiking trail to even get to them. Everything in the park is so far apart that it took thirty minutes to drive to the Sequoia groves and a full hour to fully exit the park. I was excited though because I had wanted to see El Capitan and it ended up that we had to drive by it on our way out of the Valley! It is the largest mountain of its type in the world!

Yosemite is such a huge park and everything is so far apart, I’d definitely like to go there again, camp there for at least three days in order to do it right. There’s so much to see and everything is so far apart. Besides, I have to go back to hike all the way to the top Half Dome :)