Day 18

Day 18: Waterfalls Abound!

We woke up to another beautiful, and even warmer day. We packed up camp and bid farewell to our former campsite intruders-turned-friends, and headed into a much less crowded Yosemite Valley. We went straight to Lower Yosemite Falls and parked, then took the shuttle to the trailhead for the Upper Yosemite Falls trail. We hiked up an extremely steep trail to Columbia Rock, ascending 1,000 feet in only one mile. We continued an additional half mile to a view of the Upper Falls, and then hiked down. Yosemite Falls consists of the upper, middle, and lower falls, forming a combined 2,500 feet of waterfall, making it the tallest in North America and something like the fifth tallest in the world. The water-flow isn’t very strong, however, so it is not as impressive as some of the other falls in the valley, like Vernal and Nevada Falls, where we headed to next.

            If we thought the first hike was steep, I don’t know how to describe this hike. The mist trail goes up to Vernal Falls and then Nevada Falls. Half stairs, half too-steep asphalt, this trail made everybody seem out of shape. You can probably guess why it’s called the Mist Trail. If you can’t, look at the pictures.

            Exhausted, we decided to put in one last effort to go see Mirror Lake… as we rounded the bend to the Lake, it was very familiar… because we had found it yesterday on that other trail we were “lost” on! In the end it was worth it, because we met our first fellow travelers from NC, a family from Rockingham. We went and took warm, FREE showers in Curry Village, bought some snacks we missed, had dinner, and passed out after a long day of hiking. Tomorrow we’ll drive halfway to the Grand Tetons and get groceries!