Where: Yosemite National Park, California
When: October 9-10, 2010
With: Rachel
While I was visiting my friend Rachel after she'd recently moved to San Francisco, I suggested that we take advantage of her new California living with a weekend road trip out to Yosemite to relax and get her out of the city a little bit.
I had never actually been to a good ol' fashioned National Park, and really had no idea what to expect. But it was in The Book, and I figured, sure, nature, that sounds fun. Little did I realize I was about to enter one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life.
We set out late on Friday night from San Francisco for the four hour drive to Yosemite. After we left the bright lights of the Bay Area and headed inland, it was already feeling quite remote. With no streetlights to give us any indication of what was around us, it felt mysterious along the windy road.
The entrance to the park was dead by the time we arrived, almost at midnight, and we zipped right through. We were staying right in the heart of the park, in Curry Village, a grouping of simple tented cabins with nothing inside but a couple of cots. It felt so adventurous and outdoorsy. We parked our car, laid our sleeping bags out on the cots, and fell asleep immediately in the pitch black darkness.
Yosemite Park is absolutely monstrous, with tons of terrain to explore and trails to hike. However, since this was our first time visiting, we decided to stick to the most popular area, Yosemite Valley.
Our first stop was at Yosemite Falls. Since we were visiting in the beginning of fall, the waterfalls were all trickling at their lowest (the highest being after the snow melts in the spring). However, the view was no less gorgeous.
The granite peaks were quite a trick of the eye, as they don't look as high as they actually are. In fact, Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in North America standing at 2,425 feet.
The Falls are actually made up of three separate waterfalls: the Upper, Middle and Lower. By the time we reached the bottom of the Falls, only the Lower part could be seen.
While this creek seems to be pretty innocent, in the spring, this would be a crazy river from the outpouring of the Falls.
From up in the creek, we got our first open view of the "tunnel" that makes up the edges of the Yosemite Valley.
In attempting to snap a shot of the two of us on a timer, I inadvertently created a very artsy album cover.
After the Falls, we headed into the heart of the Valley along the Meadow Loop trail. It was fairly easy and flat, but gave us another great view of the peaks around us. It definitely made us feel small!
El Capitan ahead, and Half Dome peaking through the trees behind us.
The granite cliffs shooting up above us were so surreal. I just didn't know nature could create something like this. I was blown away.
More views from the valley floor. The cliffs in the distance look superimposed.
The trail slowly went from open meadow to woods, providing some beautiful frames for the cliffs around us.
The trees also provided a nice little surprise with an open interior large enough to step into!
Another interesting observation - an absolute swarm of lady bugs, both on the ground and on the surrounding blades of grass.
We eventually reached the base of one of the more popular peaks in the park, El Capitan. I swear I have never felt as small as I did standing at the base of this cliff.
To provide some perspective, this is a super zoom on El Capitan (just to the right of the center pine trees in the photo above). If you see that tiny dot in the center of the photo, that would be someone attempting to scale the 3,000 foot peak, a challenge popular with rock climbers. Noooo thank you.
At this point, we thought it might be a nice to grab a spot to have some lunch. We had packed some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and were excited to relax and enjoy the view. Well, the view certainly got interesting as suddenly a mama bear and her cub came out of the trees to cross the river (thankfully away from us). While it was an exciting sight to see, we still slowly packed up our lunch, crossed our fingers that we were downwind, and moved it along.
The rest of the valley hike was spectacular. I could have walked this all day. The weather was so crisp and refreshing, it made the air smell even fresher than it already was.
In the afternoon, we headed back to the campsite and rented some bikes to cover more ground into the eastern part of the valley. It gave us some new views of Half Dome, as well as some other peaks.
On this side of the park, we saw some far less terrifying wildlife.
The hike up Half Dome is somewhat more doable than El Capitan, but definitely takes the better part of the day, and ends with a tough scramble to the top. We were just fine taking it in from down here.
Crossing this log was probably the most challenging part of our hike, and we were perfectly fine with that. I was so nervous for my camera (yes, even in 3 inches of water).
Back to our cuddling bikes.
To end our evening, we partook in a Yosemite Valley tradition: watching the sunset over Half Dome from the top of Glacier Point. Thankfully there's an easy drive to the top, so we could head up in time for the sun to go down and not worry about hiking down.
Right off the bat, the Valley and Half Dome were bathed in orange.
We could really see right down the "Tunnel" as the lower parts of the Valley were already shadowed over.
Half Dome and the Tunnel in one.
Loving this view and enjoying some sundowners!
Eventually orange gave way to pink, and the view didn't get old.
The Sierra Nevada Mountains.
A little map and perspective.
The final shred of light over Half Dome and an absolutely spectacular day.
Back at the campsite, nightlife is not surprisingly at a minimum. So we bought ourselves a few tiny bottles of wine at the cafeteria and had ourselves a night!
The next morning was another beautiful one. We took a minute to enjoy our surroundings in Curry Village.
Since we were in the middle of a National Park, filled with wildlife, we were provided with a bear locker to store all our food. Not even the car is an acceptable place to keep food as bears have been known to demolish the windows just to get a bite. This is the only safe place for food to be kept, both for humans and bears.
After checking out of our tent, we started our exploration drive through the Valley. Our first stop was at Bridalveil Falls, one of the easier waterfalls to see in the park.
Having fun with water movement and camera exposure.
At the base of Bridalveil.
The next stop on our drive may be the most iconic view of Yosemite Valley: the Tunnel View. From here, the peaks of the Yosemite Valley hang over the pine trees below. The geology of this valley is also most prominent from here, as its possible to see how a river could have carved this magical place.
We're so happy we took this trip!
Our final stop in Yosemite was in Mariposa Grove, the most easily accessible group of giant sequoias in the park. I'll just start by saying these trees look completely fake, and it felt like walking on the set of a fantasy movie.
These trees were so massive. Their trunks were so thick and knobby, they felt like they were made of plastic. And again, I can't say it enough, they were huge!
It's amazing that the trees are so big, there need to be signs warning visitors to stay out of the inside of them.
While walking, I came across a tiny acorn that happened to be a sequoia acorn. It's amazing that this little guy will one day become this big guy! Another interesting fact we learned was that for many years, park officials attempted to prevent forest fires, for the obvious reason of protecting the sequoias. However, over time, new seedlings weren't getting the necessary light they needed to grow and flourish as they were being outgrown by the other plants in the forest. Rangers soon realized that wildfires were actually nature's way of burning out the brush that the resilient sequoias were tough enough to live through, allowing the younger trees the light and nutrients necessary to obtain their large size. Now, every few years, controlled wildfires are set to help the sequoias grow!
Being as old as these trees are, a lot of natural phenomenons have occurred to several of the trees, earning some of them special nicknames.
This first one was the Fallen Monarch, a tree that actually fell 300 years ago! Its roots are still exposed, and due to the strong make of the sequoias, the tree remains pretty much in tact.
Another famous tree group is the Bachelor and the Three Graces.
The Three Graces grow right next to each other with the Bachelor close by. The trees' roots are so intertwined underneath that if one tree ever goes down, they will likely all go down together.
The oldest tree in the grove is known as the Grizzly Giant. It is believed to be between 1,900 and 2,400 years old! It's base is 30 feet in diameter, and it's lowest branch is 6 feet in diameter.
Next up is the California Tunnel Tree, one of the trees that had a tunnel carved into it back in the 1800s wide enough to allow cars to drive through it. Sadly, this is the only one still standing, and thankfully, it was realized how much damage this does to a living tree and stopped.
The space didn't quite look large enough for a car, though I guess cars today are bigger than they were in the 1890s. However, along the top of the tunnel is the residual evidence of a close call made by someone passing through.
The next natural marvel was the Faithful Couple. These two trees grew so close to one another that eventually the base of their trunks actually merged together. Absolutely beautiful.
Next up was the Telescope Tree. While it looks like yet another tree with a hollow interior, this one has a surprise inside.
Years of wildfires hasve actually hollowed out the whole middle of the trunk, so from the inside, you can see right out the top!
Then we came across the Clothespin Tree, another tree that has suffered from wildfires, causing a large hole in the middle of the trunk.
The rest of the grove was just as beautiful to hike through, and was a fantastic way to end our weekend in Yosemite.
Looking back on this trip, I can't help but exhale at the beauty of this place and the peace it brought. It opened my eyes to the stunning beauty of National Parks, and to this day, is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in the world. I would go back here every year if I could, but it makes me excited what beauties the other US National Parks hold.
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