Day 14 - Yosemite Day 2

The alarm goes off at 6am and it’s hard getting up, but we want an early start for our walk today and so soon get dressed and into the car. We’re heading down into the Valley today and plan to walk the Mist Trail. This walk will lead us passed two waterfalls and the walk can be extended to climbing Half Dome itself. The reason for our early start is partially to beat the crowds on a popular trail, but also to allow us the time to climb Half Dome if we want to when we get to the top of the Mist Trail. At weekends you must have a permit to climb Half Dome and its wire walkway, but during the week this isn’t required. Laura and Lesley had tried to get us all a permit to climb together at the weekend, but they were all snapped up within an hour of being released. They have a permit for later in the summer and we think it might be fun to come back from this trip having done it already.

We set off from the Trail Head car park at 7.30am and the first part of the walk follows the fast flowing river and is on a tarmac path. We spend a while getting into our pace and find that we are playing tag almost with other walkers who we overtake then they stop, but they overtake us when we in turn take a break.
 
About 45 minutes into the walk a wooden bridge takes us across the river as it falls over huge angular rocks. There is a lot of energy here and sometimes you can only just see the dark rocks through the mass of white water that rushes over them. It looks good, but not as impressive as we’d thought the waterfalls would be on this walk. We fill up our water bottles at the water fountain provided here.

It’s only later as we start to climb the stepped path that we realise that that wasn’t the first waterfall! The path is mainly steps now, which are needed to help us gain the altitude we need on this walk as there are hardly any doglegs on this walk because the narrow path clings closely to the river’s steep path. We hear Vernal Falls before we see it and we even feel it before we see it too as we walk through the mist that gives the trail its name. We’re soaked by the millions of droplets of water that have been thrown up by the force of hitting the bottom of the falls here. It’s an amazing feeling though and one for all of our senses.

It’s onwards and upwards. We’ve climbed around 1,000 feet from our start on the valley floor and have another 1,000 feet to the top of Nevada Falls. The heights are huge, but the distance we’ve covered is not; the few miles we have covered have mostly been covered in steps. The approach to Nevada Falls is different in that we have a view of this massive waterfall for a long section of the walk. We’re not covered in spray as we had been before but the steps and path wind a narrow route up the side of this waterfall. The top of the path takes us off to the side, rather than the lip this time, and the end of the Mist Trail.

We have the energy to continue here, but both feel that Half Dome is beyond us today. We’d love to do it, but know that the end of the Mist Trail is only halfway in terms of distance, and importantly also in terms of height gain; to get up Half Dome we’d have to climb another 2,000 feet and then of course descend all 4,000 feet before nightfall. Although our fitness isn’t bad we haven’t done any hiking out in Egypt these last two years and we simply don’t have enough water to last the day, as it’s only going to get hotter and the path more exposed if we continue. What galls us though is the number of people we’ve passed (or have passed us) on the path who seem far less prepared than us, yet are determined to climb half Dome today; some are in trainers, most only carrying a 500ml bottle of water and one notable group who want to find a short cut that isn’t too steep!

It’s not yet 11am and we decide to continue our walk for a while along the flat and lush Little Yosemite Valley. It’s a lovely path and the valley is a real change from the walk so far. We stop by a small stream on the edge of some trees. This is the furthest point for us today we feel, as the path bends round on itself and starts to climb seriously again. We’re happy to turn round and have a good walk today, than try to keep going and struggle.

On the way back we walk though the wilderness campsite, and a bit beyond catch sight of a deer on the trail.

From here we go over to the lip of Nevada Falls which has a great sign reading, “Risk of death. Don’t swim in the river. Strong currents. If you go over the waterfall you will die.” Instead of following the same trail back, we go along the John Muir Trail which takes a route on the other side of the river. This was the original path and so the path is dog legged instead of stepped. It’s a gradual climb down and we find a spot to have lunch looking out at Half Dome and Nervada Falls.

It’s mid-afternoon when we finish our walk and we’re happy as we walk to the car that we have an afternoon to ourselves. We get a celebratory ice cream in Yosemite Village and spend some time in the museum, shop and cinema.

Back at the camp Scotty has perfected his campfire technique and we have sausages for tea. Try as we might we hardly make a dent in the 500g pack of marshmallows.