The Yosemite Trip
The actual trip was amazing, but not without its own unscheduled surprises that we had to overcome. I will break down the actual hikes into more detail in their own posts, but here I will give a general overview of the trip and how we dealt with altering our schedule to fit the unpredictability of the mountains.
On day one after an overnight drive and setting up camp we still had the energy to head into Yosemite to give my partner his first look at the park and seek out some lunch. At this point I was genuinely worried that I had overhyped the majesty of Yosemite over the months leading up to the trip and that my partner would not find the sights as awe inspiring as I had described. I was pleased to discover that as my partner got a glimpse of El Capitan through the trees on our way into the valley from the El Portal entrance, tears had formed in his eyes and he completely lost words to describe how he was feeling. The rest of the day was spent giving my partner a look at the major sights and a taste of the journey ahead of us in Yosemite.
The following days we awoke early in the morning to maximize the daylight available for the hikes we had on the itinerary. The first day was spent in the valley hiking the sections of the main loop that were not flooded, because of this snowmelt we did end up walking alongside the road until the trail was once again dry enough to traverse. This did allow us to begin to acclimate to the altitude so that we did not succumb to altitude sickness on the more strenuous hikes later in the trip. This method would have been more successful, however, had we not tackled the Upper Yosemite Falls Trail on the second full day of the trip. The view from atop the falls and the wildlife we saw along the trail made our aching bodies entirely worth the hike in the end.
The following morning we ignored our sore muscles and headed off to see the giant sequoias of the Mariposa Grove. In the grove we found solitude for a large portion of the morning, and enjoyed our first snacks of the day in the company of a small group of does and fawns. The weather was cool beneath the trees and the hiking was primarily flat with some slight inclines that allowed our legs to stretch without excess stress to the muscles and joints. Luckily we left the grove around the time that the crowds began to arrive and were able to get enough rest to tackle Four Mile Trail the next day. We decided to turn this hike into the entire loop starting at the valley floor, breaking for lunch atop Glacier Point, and hiking back down to the valley via Panorama Trail. This hike was absolutely breathtaking, and one that I highly recommend to anyone with the ability to safely tackle the trail. There was something surreal about standing at Glacier Point, looking down at the trailhead, and coming to the realization that I had just hiked up the side of the cliff, in that moment it felt as if anything was possible.
The other hike that simultaneously inspired feelings of invincibility and fear was the famous Half Dome hike. This was a hike that I genuinely thought I was not going to be physically able to complete, especially after I had watched countless videos of other hikers traversing the cables. Getting to the subdome was not too much of a problem, as that portion of the hike is fairly tame, but the subdome was terrifying and I thought I was going to fall off the side, keep in mind, this was before I had come face to face with the cables. After a lot of encouragement from myself and fellow hikers, I pulled myself up onto the top of Half Dome and immediately burst into tears. Once we found ourselves back in the valley, we obtained ice cream and celebrated our final evening in Yosemite.
Despite the major hikes we were able to conquer, we still needed to alter our schedule to adjust for the northern areas of the park being inaccessible with Tioga Road being closed. Specifically, there were two days that we had to fill with alternate activities, one of which we had a plan in place prior to leaving for the trip. This day we headed north to Hetch Hetchy (a place I had never seen), the meadows were still bursting with the colors of spring, and the snow had only just finished melting. My partner enjoyed reading about the history of the valley and the reservoir when we walked out onto the damn and stared out across the water at the waterfalls visible from our vantage point.
The second day was a little more tough to fill, as it was the day before the Half Dome hike, and we decided it would be unwise to attempt the alternate hike we had already put on the itinerary. Instead, we just spent the day in the valley doing all of the things we had been avoiding while losing ourselves in the wilderness. We stopped at the visitor center, went to the museum, visited the cemetery, stopped for lunch in Half Dome Village, and partook in souvenir shopping. As boring as this day sounds compared to the other days I mentioned, it was much needed to allow our bodies to rest and to stimulate our minds by learning about the history of Yosemite.
When we departed Tioga Road was open for a couple of hours to through traffic, so we seized the opportunity to drive the scenic route and glimpse the high country still dusted with the remainder of winter snow. This was the perfect farewell to an amazing time spent in Yosemite National Park, and offered us the opportunity to explore Mono Lake and take a detour to Bodie on our way home. No matter how amazing the trip was, it was still wonderful to arrive home to a hot shower and a bed that was not cushioned by air. Now I am left to look forward to the next trip on our agenda.
