Day 17

Day 17

May 27, 2012

This morning we woke up to a miracle, the sun. It was still freezing but we had hoped it would warm up. We cooked breakfast; we are starting to get low on food so a grocery store stop will be added to the route to the Grand Tetons.

            We headed down the mountain trying to figure out the best way to see everything that we want to see and avoid the mass amounts of the crowds. As we headed back down towards the valley we were finally able to see why every one loves Yosemite so much, it is so amazing. There are huge rock faces everywhere you look, the most famous being El Capitan and Half-Dome, as well as breathtaking waterfalls around every corner. The drive through the valley seems so magical with the bright green tree’s towering on both side and a white water river running beside you.  Our pure enjoyment of the scenery was short lived as we quickly hit traffic. We could not even stop at one viewpoint because there was so much craziness. All of the trailhead parking lots full, we could only park on the sides of the road. We hiked to the top of the sentinel dome which has an awesome 360 degree view of all of the rock faces and down into the valley.  It was such an incredible feeling to stand on top of that huge rock and every direction you turned was a massive rock or waterfall or Sierra mountain cover in snow. It’s hard not feel small (in a good way) when looking at this landscape.

            We continued to Glacier Point, which was another incredible view, but there were so many people it was hard to even get a good look at the vast scenery in front of us. As we gazed at Half Dome in the distance, we noticed a waterfall behind Half Dome. The problem was, there is no waterfall behind Half Dome! It was an avalanche!

Next, we headed down into the valley at a snail’s pace because of traffic. We got out and hiked up the small trail to see Bridalveil Falls. I love the view of a waterfall from the bottom and to be able to fell the mist falling from the water falling and crashing into rocks. Once again the trail was cramped, I have never seen so many people at one small view point, we just sat an watched all of the people, cameras, babies and dogs being passed every which way for pictures.

            We headed back into traffic to go on hike to see the mirror lake. When we finally found a parking spot we still had a good walk just to get to our trailhead. It was the one of the most beautiful trails I have walked (besides the horse manure everywhere). It was a wonderful evening, the sun shone through the trees across the river and highlighted the rock face skyline. We walked a long time until we finally realized that we missed the intersecting trial to get to the mirror lake, but it was ok because we found such a pretty trail. David bounced from rock to rock and tried very hard to cross the very rapid river, he even wanted to attempt to walk on water.

            We finally made it back to the car after another hour or so getting lost trying to get back to the car. We pulled out of our parking spot and sat in traffic for another hour or more barely moving a few feet every 20 minutes. We have learned our lesson never to come back to Yosemite on Memorial Day weekend. Now we’re heading back to camp, hoping it will be a little warmer tonight.