Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley

Today we drove to the Yosemite Valley.  Yosemite Valley is world-famous for its impressive waterfalls, cliffs, and unusual rock formations.  Since we were coming from the south on the Wawona Road we drove through the Tunnel where we had our first glimpse of the specatucular view of the entire Valley. There is a pull off  just after the tunnel and a great place to get pictures of the massive cliff faces like El Capitan, Cathederal Rock, Bridal Veil Falls, and Half Dome all in one view. I would suggest you bring your wide angle lense for this one. It's amazing and well worth the stop before you enter into the valley.

Bridal Veil Falls

Catherderal Rock

Our hiking path to Vernal Falls

From here we stopped at Bridal Vail Falls, water was minimal but was flowing. We could only imagine what it would be like in the spring time. On to Yosemite Valley and El Capitan Meadows where you have a straight up view of El Capitan and views of Cathedral Rocks. El Capitan , the massive granite monolith stands 3,593 ft. from base to summit, breathtaking.  We continued our drive through the valley past the Yosemite Chapel, and the famous Sentinel Bridge.  It's here where you have great views of Half dome reflected in the Merced River especially at sunset and Yosemite Falls nearby.  We then stopped at the visitors center where we met up with Oxford friend (one of the boys sitters)Naomi Chakrin. She is a Wilderness Ranger here at Yosemite.  Wonderful to see her and visit with her before we hopped on the shuttle bus to take us to the trail head for our afternoon hike. 

There is no parking at the trail head so you must take a shuttle bus from one of the parking areas.  In the future we would probably park at Curry Village and catch the bus from there instead of from the visitors center.  

Vernal Falls

Views of Grizzy and Liberty Peaks

The hike we chose was the Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall trails starting from the Happy Isles trail head (shuttle stop#16).  It was an amazing but fairly strenuous hike.  You climb along nature's "giant staircase," where you are rewarded with close-up view of two waterfalls, emerald pools, and numerous geologic features. It's about 2.4 miles round trip with 1000ft. elevation gain to the top of Vernal Fall and you should plan on about 3 hours.  It's 5.4 mi round trip to the top of Nevada Falls and you should plan on 5-6 hours for this.  Being that we started so late in the late I have to admit that we stopped just past Vernal Falls.  The sun would be setting soon and not sure we really wanted to break out the headlamps for the downward climb on the staircase.  I'm sure it would have been an adventure but believe it or not we know our limitations and it was time to head down the mountain. 

Half Dome at Sunset

The Valley at Sunset

El Capitan at Sunset

Half Dome at Sunset

Since we were still in the Valley at sunset we headed over to the Sentinel Bridge for a sunset picture of Half Dome, Yosemite Falls and then one last shot of El Capitan before exiting the valley. The Golden light was spectacular and worth the extra few minutes.  Exhausted but exhilarated from today's exploration we headed off to our accomodations, the Tenya Lodge for a little dinner, a glass of wine, and perhaps a few minutes by natures TV, the firpit.