Yosemite Valley, CA 2010 June

Okay, so this wasn't so much of a backpacking trip (since I didn't actually do any backpacking) as it was a chance to hike one of the most beautiful spots on the planet. If you've done Yosemite NP, then this won't be very interesting to you. If you haven't visited Yosemite, start making plans now ... go early and often ... you will not regret it.

After reading extensively about Yosemite, we decided to meet our son/daughter-in-law there in early June to catch the tail end of the snow melt and the waterfalls in full bloom ... and, brother, did we!
A ranger told us that the NP had 151% of its normal snow pack and the waterfalls were about as full as they ever got. By the time we left the park, the meadows in the middle of the park were mostly flooded. Of course, they weren't even close to the January 1997 flood level, but a couple of boardwalks and bridges had water over them. That did not bother us because we wanted to be up on the ridge level as much as possible.The afternoon we got to the area, we drove into the park and took some first pictures. That was fun, but we didn't really get very far into the park. The next morning we hit the park inearnest. The son/d-in-law did the upper Yosemite Falls hike while the wife and I did only the lower falls. My son said later that had been their toughest hike. Most of the day was spent acclimating ourselves to the park and deciding what we wanted to do the remaining days.
On day two, we decided to hit the high country and catch Taft Point and Sentinental Dome. We drove through a good bit of snow to get up to the TP/SD parking lot and when we arrived we saw people walking around on the snow, but no one hiking toward either of the two sights. We knew that Taft Point was to the west, so we began looking for a trail through the snow. Finally we found some footprints of three people leading off roughly west through the snow. We crossed very precarioussnow bridges and continued for a while until we saw the people leaving the footprints ... a couple and their young daughter who admitted that they didn't know where they were going, but looking for the trail, also. They had been dragging a trekking pole so that they would be able to find their footprints if they got mixed up in others. At that point we though about turning around, but spotted some rocks back up the hill and decide to climb them to see if we could see a trail of any kind or a landmark that might lead us in the right direction.

The four of us played around on the rocks for a while, then my son saw a couple coming back through the woods from the west. They had been to TP and showed us the b

lazes high on the trees for us to follow. Well, duh! I had looked for some blazes back in the parking lot area, but hadn't seen these. We followed the blazes over some more snow bridge creek crossings (which wouldn't be around very much longer) and finally came upon what was obviously Taft Point. TP was all I had read about and we stayed up there taking pictures for over an hour. The view of the Yosemite Valley below was spectacular. We made some pictures of each couple on the point and tried to make some Christmas card pictures, but didn't get any good ones. Well, we got a set of good pictures of us, but not of the four of us and the scenery behind.

After we followed the blazes back to the parking lot we drove around to Washburn Point (the eastern-most point of the south ridge) where we got some great views of Half Dome, Vernal Falls, and Nevada Falls. The view is almost overwhelming because you can see so much of the northeast end of the valley. We drove on around to Glacier Point and messed around there for an hour or so taking more pictures. There was a Japanese wedding going on at Glacier Point. Interesting, huh? Nice background shots, for sure ...

I looked at the map closely while at GP and saw that there was a road up to Sentinel Dome. We found it, left my tired wife in the car, and hiked up the mostly-paved gated road to the bottom of SD. We hiked up a pretty steep hill through the snow to get to the top. Sentinel Dome is where Ansel Adams photographed the Jeffrey Tree (Bristlecone Pine--oldest in the area) before it died and fell over. The believe it to have been about 4200 yrs old when it decided to fall over. We got some interesting shots from the Dome and then hiked back to the car.

It took us about two hours to drive back down to the valley and we went by El Capitan and took a couple of shots of climbers. One can see how enormous that rock face is when trying to see the specks that are climbers going up the cracks in the granite facing ... I don't think I was ever in shape to challenge that unless it was in the 60s after basic training in the Army (not a voluntary event!).

The next day had been declared "Big Trees Day" with the Sullivan family ... so we left fairly early to drive to the Wawona parking lot to catch the shuttle for the Sequoias. My brother-in-law, the former forester, had told me that redwoods and Sequoias were different varieties of trees, but I learned much more that day. Redwoods are taller trees, some tree in South America is bigger around, but the Sequoias have more board feet than any other. Of course, the Sequoia wood isn't good for building products and such ... only for pencils and toothpicks ... but one tree would make for a heck of a lot of pencils and toothpicks. These trees grow up for about the first 100 to 125 years and then grow out. The important thing about these trees is that a man named Galen Clark saw the grove near Wawona sometime after the mid-1800s and pushed John Muir and others to action to preserve them. You can read about the national park system, but this was where it all started and we have Galen Clark to thank. The National Park Service uniform patch has a Sequoia on it in his honor. The hikes were not too tough that day and son/d-in-law did the much longer hike while the old folks kept to the main trails.

After the big trees, we drove out to Tuolumne Meadows on the Tioga Pass Road which had just been opened. We didn't get to see much of the Meadows because of the snowpack, but we saw where they were and saw some different parts of the valley's high country. Then it was back to the valley and had some dinner and refreshments at the Yosemite Lodge ... a great way to end a day learning about something you've never experienced before. My son and I live about 1200 miles apart and we don't get to talk a lot anymore, so the time spent chatting was good for me. He was very patient.

Day five was the falls day ... Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls. To get to those trails, one has to catch a shuttle bus to get to the Happy Isles Nature Center and hike from there. We got to the trail head about 10:15 and joined the crowds up the paved trail to the bridge at the bottom of Vernal Falls. The walk wasn't too difficult and the crowded trail, though dense, was not packed. Fortunately, we were in much better shape than some who were hiking up the trail. From the trailhead, the sign said a mile and a half to the top of Vernal Falls along the "Mist Trail." Well, folks ... because of the 151% of the regular snowpack in the area, the falls were enormous and the "Mist Trail" was actually a monsoon trail. We were soaked when we got to the top ... soaked and chilled. Fortunately, though, the top is a big rock amphitheater where everyone was drying off and warming up. My son/d-in-law went on to the top of Nevada Falls--another two miles--but we were done for the day ... the trip back down would be a challenge.

After studying the map some more, I realized that we could circle up to the mountainside a bit and connect with the John Muir Trail, and, without going too much further, get back to the bottom without taking another bath on the monsoon trail. We made that wise decision without much deliberation ... and, besides, I wanted to hike on the John Muir Trail some, too. These two trails intersect at the JMT and go on northeast to the bottom of Half Dome. The son had planned to do HD, but the cables weren't up yet due to the snow still on the top.

Interestingly, my son/d-in-law hiked to the top of Nevada Falls and we all four got back to the bridge at the bottom of Vernal Falls at the same time ... they hike fast--we hike slow.

The next morning my daughter-in-law and I were up early and headed to the valley to get to the Tunnel View parking lot before dawn. We made it and spent 45 minutes snapping photos and watching the son come up. What a wonderful experience on our last day in Yosemite. My little point-and-shoot camera took some of my best photos of the valley. After the son was up, we drove down to the valley, proper, and took some good photos of El Capitan in the early morning sun.

I've been to most of our national parks, Yellowstone, Glacier, Arches, Rocky Mountain, Smoky Mountain, Acadia, but none hold the variety of scenes as does Yosemite. I think the Grand Canyon is almost incomprehensible in its enormity and scope, but, in my mind, Yosemite probably trumps it with the variety and beauty of all of the water falls and granite faces.

What a great experience! John Muir said, "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings." Yosemite is one of those places whose tidings we all need to renew our spirits.