USA: Yosemite 1995

May 17, 1995

Yosemite National Park is in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. It’s famed for its giant, ancient sequoia trees, and for Tunnel View, the iconic vista of towering Bridalveil Fall and the granite cliffs of El Capitan and Half Dome. El Capitan is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith is about 3,000 feet from base to summit along its tallest face and is a popular objective for rock climbers. Half Dome is a quartz monzonite batholith at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California. It is a well-known rock formation in the park, named for its distinct shape. One side is a sheer face while the other three sides are smooth and round, making it appear like a dome cut in half. Bridalveil Fall is one of the most prominent waterfalls in the Yosemite Valley in California. The waterfall is 188 metres in height and flows year round.

🙂 STUNNING scenery!

🙁 It can be busy – but book the back country permits!

Wednesday, 17 May 1995 – Monday, 22 May 1995

Paul and I purchased back country permits as the Yosemite Village lodges were full. We headed off – Two trails lead to Little Yosemite Valley – the Mist Trail and the John Muir Trail. They diverge after the Vernal Fall bridge and meet again at the top of Nevada Fall. We took the Mist Trail going up and the JMT coming down. Both are wonderful experiences. The Mist Trail has many steps and was very wet! We set off after midday because we had to store our excess baggage in lockers. We got to Little Yosemite at 16h00. The rangers said a bear had just passed through and showed us the fresh poop. There were patches of snow – Trent snowballed us! We spotted squirrels and deer. We went for a short walk and then made diner and had hot chocolates. The campsite was stunning in the middle of the forest, next to a river. We packed everything into bear boxes to be safe.

The next morning we were up early and headed to the half dome trail at 10h30. This is the description: The trail to Half Dome from Yosemite Valley is an extremely steep and strenuous hike covering over 14-16 miles. Hikers gain 4,800 feet of elevation along the trail that passes highlights such as Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall, before reaching the cables on Half Dome’s steep granite domes. The weather was fantastic with blue skies and sunshine. I wore my bikini walking through the snow! We headed up to half dome, up a very steep snow slope which was quite deep.

Trent loved the snow! We got to the saddle at the base of half dom which looked extremely daunting AND the cables were down. We tied each other together and on to the cables using camera straps! I lost the plot and felt terrified half way up! My strap broke so I raced ahead fearing a fall. We reached the summit alive. Views were spectacular with snow capped peaks surrounding us. Saw marmots. We raced down the snow slope on our bottoms!

Got back to camp after a minor detour when we lost the path at 18h00 feeling tired but accomplished! We saw bear footprints! We were sunburnt from the snow – made a quick dinner and were soon fast asleep!

We were up early the next morning and headed back on the alternative route which was very steep and we got very wet! But spectacular. On arrival in Yosemite Village we splashed out on Burgers, fries and milkshakes! We camped in the backpackers campsite – we were too full to eat but we did toast marshmellows on our fire. We saw coyotes lurking around and a black bear! Yum.