7/4/2011
Sam, Kara, and I got up at 5:00 am today to beat the crowds we thought were inevitable at Yosemite. Kara’s last visit to Yosemite was when she was around 10, so she was perfectly fine with doing the touristy thing. We had decided previously that we would not climb Half Dome (despite having permits to do so) since Sam and Kara both thought a 16 mile hike would agitate some pre-existing hiking aches. Instead we went up the trail to Vernal Falls (which is along the way to Half Dome). We chose the Mist Trail, a portion of which consists of about 1000 steps along the cliff side by the falls. The mist from the falls got us all thoroughly soaked, and near the top the spray felt like getting hit by a monsoon rainstorm.
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| Looking down on Vernal Falls; the trail we took went up the right side of the cliff |
We reached the top of Vernal Falls around 9:30am, and were wet and cold. Since we really had no concrete plans for the rest of the day, we sat around for 2 hours until we were warm and dry, and then we took a different, dry, trail back to the valley.
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| Even the squirrels thought it was cold and were sunning on the rocks |
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| This was as close as I got to Half Dome |
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| Really cool plants I saw on the way back down - they looked like smaller versions of a plant I've seen on Santa Cruz Island |
Oddly, there were not as many people on the 4th of July as there were the previous weekend when Sam showed me around the first time.
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| The snow melt makes the streams run high |
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| Sam, Kara, and I at Yosemite Falls |
Back at home Kara made us delicious fajitas and Sam made peach and banana piña coladas. Sam’s town had done fireworks on the 2nd instead of the 4th, which we all thought was disappointing, so to celebrate the 4th we dressed up and went to the Iron Door Bar and played pool all night. It was pretty fun, even though we were all pretty bad. At one point some guys (also visiting Yosemite) came in to watch, and I think even they were a little appalled at our lack of skill (though Kara did sink some pretty impressive shots).
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