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We only had 26 hours in Yosemite, which isn't nearly enough. A lot of the most famous sights can be glimpsed from the Yosemite Valley loop road, but it often takes a hike of an hour or more to get a proper view. My sister Barbara and I had made a list of the hikes we thought we could fit in, including the Mariposa Grove, Glacier Point and Taft trails to be done as we drove into the park on Sunday from LA, then the Lower Yosemite Falls, Cook Meadow and Bridalveil trails as we left the park on Monday for San Francisco.
Alas, our plans were completely blown to smithereens when my nephew lost his backpack with his money, most of his ID (though not his passport thank goodness) and his graduation ring. He realized this just as we were entering the park so Barbara dropped my other sister Claire and me off and circled back to where he thought he left it - where we had stopped for a pit stop at the 'world's worst bathroom' a few hours earlier. Claire and I grabbed at the stuff we thought we'd need to make it through the afternoon and evening but of course we got it all wrong. We were both carrying too much weight for proper hiking since we couldn't check in until after 5 PM. And we kept forgetting to stock back up on water when the rare opportunity struck. And... Well, I'll leave off the complaining - let's just say that I was in a pretty dire mood for much of the afternoon and evening.
If anything, the next morning proved even more disappointing as we tried to play catch up on our original plans. We started out very early, which is definitely the best time to see the Valley since the crowds haven't shown up yet. Everything went well until we headed up the road to Glacier Point, which is probably only about 10 miles as the crow flies but at least 30 on the very windy and hilly road. And then we realized that we wouldn't have nearly enough gas to make it to the end of the road and still make it back to the nearest gas station - which let me tell you isn't nearly near enough! So we decided to turn back and try the Taft trail instead, only to realize we wouldn't have enough time to complete it and do the Mariposa Grove trail as well. And since that one had the giant redwoods that we really wanted to see, we headed back. But when we did so, we realized that Claire had got separated from us and had headed down another trail. So in the end, we didn't complete any of the three trails that we wanted to get to that day. Grrrr.
Despite all the problems, Yosemite did weave its magic. The above montage has some of my favorite moments:
- (upper left) Lower Yosemite Falls. You start to appreciate the scale of the falls from this shot at the base - those specs at the bottom are people trying to get even closer.
- (upper right) Upper and Lower Falls. The total drop is over 2000 feet.
- (lower right) This mule deer was originally sleeping under a bush, then started to graze as we watched from about 20 feet away.
- (lower left) View from the overlook where we turned around on the road to Glacier Point. Basically looks down at the end of Yosemite Valley, showing a different angle of Half Dome, plus Vernal Falls
- (centre) Half Dome is just stunning - i shot about a hundred pictures of it, but could never really capture the scale. Its over 4500 feet tall!
If you want to see more of my favorite pics of Yosemite, check out my Facebook album. So beautiful!
Alas, our plans were completely blown to smithereens when my nephew lost his backpack with his money, most of his ID (though not his passport thank goodness) and his graduation ring. He realized this just as we were entering the park so Barbara dropped my other sister Claire and me off and circled back to where he thought he left it - where we had stopped for a pit stop at the 'world's worst bathroom' a few hours earlier. Claire and I grabbed at the stuff we thought we'd need to make it through the afternoon and evening but of course we got it all wrong. We were both carrying too much weight for proper hiking since we couldn't check in until after 5 PM. And we kept forgetting to stock back up on water when the rare opportunity struck. And... Well, I'll leave off the complaining - let's just say that I was in a pretty dire mood for much of the afternoon and evening.
If anything, the next morning proved even more disappointing as we tried to play catch up on our original plans. We started out very early, which is definitely the best time to see the Valley since the crowds haven't shown up yet. Everything went well until we headed up the road to Glacier Point, which is probably only about 10 miles as the crow flies but at least 30 on the very windy and hilly road. And then we realized that we wouldn't have nearly enough gas to make it to the end of the road and still make it back to the nearest gas station - which let me tell you isn't nearly near enough! So we decided to turn back and try the Taft trail instead, only to realize we wouldn't have enough time to complete it and do the Mariposa Grove trail as well. And since that one had the giant redwoods that we really wanted to see, we headed back. But when we did so, we realized that Claire had got separated from us and had headed down another trail. So in the end, we didn't complete any of the three trails that we wanted to get to that day. Grrrr.
Despite all the problems, Yosemite did weave its magic. The above montage has some of my favorite moments:
- (upper left) Lower Yosemite Falls. You start to appreciate the scale of the falls from this shot at the base - those specs at the bottom are people trying to get even closer.
- (upper right) Upper and Lower Falls. The total drop is over 2000 feet.
- (lower right) This mule deer was originally sleeping under a bush, then started to graze as we watched from about 20 feet away.
- (lower left) View from the overlook where we turned around on the road to Glacier Point. Basically looks down at the end of Yosemite Valley, showing a different angle of Half Dome, plus Vernal Falls
- (centre) Half Dome is just stunning - i shot about a hundred pictures of it, but could never really capture the scale. Its over 4500 feet tall!
If you want to see more of my favorite pics of Yosemite, check out my Facebook album. So beautiful!
