Sunday and Monday, May 16-17, 2010, I went to Yosemite with Kaya Yuki and Abraham Wang. The waterfalls were supposed to be at their season peak at this time, and this was the best of many years. We stopped at Bridalveil Falls first.
At the falls. This would not be the last time we got wet.
Our original plan was to do Half Dome on Monday, but the high snow year meant the top was still covered with snow and the cables down. Instead I thought we'd try a couple other classic trails. The first was the Panorama Trail, which has the advantage of going up the Mist Trail past Vernal and Nevada Falls first, the same as the start of the trip to Half Dome. Here we are at the footbridge with the view of Vernal Falls.
Although the falls were strong there wasn't much wind so we didn't put on rain coats and only got a little wet. The weather was due to be better on Sunday than Monday so we did this hike first.
Nevada Falls, my favorite in the park and the strongest I've seen it.
From the footbridge over Nevada Falls. I was disappointed there wasn't more snow still visible.
Near the start of the Panorama Trail, with the south face of Half Dome (and behind it the subdome), Mount Broderick, and Liberty Cap and Nevada Falls visible in the foreground. In the background seems to be Clouds Rest, our objective in 2 weeks, but I'm not sure.
As the name implies, views from the Panorama Trail are spectacular.
Yosemite Falls, our destination for Monday.
Snow covered much of the Panorama Trail as we went on, and as we had no poles or good boots the snow to got be a drag. I went ahead to see if it ended but it seemed to just continue and I never could see much of the trail ahead. So I gave up at this point and took a picture of Half Dome.
It was beautiful from this angle and the weather and lighting were perfect.
Kaya and Abe weren't unhappy to turn around.
We had to recross all the snow fields we'd crossed. As you can see they were easy but one slip could be serious.
We decided to take the Muir Trail down for variety since we had time. We thought we'd avoid getting wet this way, but little did we know there was a waterfall right onto the trail! We got wet.
Still in good spirits.
Where we went. We still had a while to get to Illouette Falls, and farther still to Glacier Point. We'll have to finish off the trail sometime when the Four Mile Trail is open to go down. This is only my second time on the Panorama Trail, and the last time was many years ago, so it was great to be back. Our route was apparently 10 miles, and took us 4:55.
After the hike we set up camp in Upper Pines, ate an early dinner, then went to Curry Village and walked a bit toward Yosemite Village. The next morning we got up at 6am, hurriedly packed up the tents when we felt a view drops of rain, and then ate a leisurely breakfast when it seemed it was okay. We then drove to the Lower Yosemite Falls trailhead, and were rewarded with one of the classic views of Half Dome.
It's hard to see but there's snow on the summit.
Lost Arrow Spire.
We first took the tourist trail to the bottom of the falls.
Where we once again got wet. Good practice for the rest of the day.
The "before" picture. Good thing I took this because I never would have remembered them looking this happy.
Like the previous day there were various possible goals for the hike. The furthest was North Dome, the next was Yosemite Point, and the shortest was the bridge over Yosemite Falls, or even aborting if it started raining too hard.
Weather was already deteriorating, but the rain held off for a while at least. I'll have to identify this barely visible mountain sometime.
It's been a long time since I've done this trail as well (I've done it many times, however) and I'd forgotten how great the views are. North Dome and Half Dome.
Heading toward the upper falls. There would be a "mist" section ahead due to strong winds (less so on the way down), and this is perhaps the last time we weren't wearing our raincoats.
The weather continues to deteriorate. I should note it never rained hard, though, at least when we were on the trail, and the weather made the hike even more interesting.
Raincoats on.
I'd forgotten there's an observation "deck", and this narrow ledge to access it. I did remember Kaya hates narrow ledges with big dropoffs.
She wasn't very happy with me.
The view was certainly worth it, though.
I'm not sure what peak this is.
As close as I was willing to get to the top of the falls.
The Valley.
I came out pretty well in this picture, except my rain jacket puffed out.
The water before it falls.
Heading back up.
Our goal: the footbridge.
Looking downstream.
We got someone to take our picture together. There were actually tons of people doing this hike on a Monday in bad weather.
The weather got even worse as we descended, and I was glad I got pictures while there was still a view. It was no fun to descend the rain-slicked stones, and we all slipped but no major damage.
Where is Half Dome?
The "after" picture.
Yosemite Falls was hardly visible.
Back at the trailhead. I can't believe they brought an umbrella on the hike, although they didn't use it until the final flat part. We hiked about 8 miles in 4:37. A fantastic couple of days!
