We just finished another breathtaking day! Just when we thought we had seen all the best national parks that America has to offer, we found another gem. A little park named Yosemite. 🙂 Some of the most beloved and well-known park icons are found there: El Capitan, Half Dome, Bridalveil Fall, and the Yosemite Valley itself. Images of the valley often serve as the quintessential national park pastoral landscape. Look familiar?

This is the “tunnel view” of Yosemite Valley. El Capitan is on the left, half dome is visible just right of center, and Bridalveil Fall is almost visible on the right in the shadows.

This is the scene that greets visitors as they exit through a driving tunnel in the mountain. As with almost everything we’ve seen on this trip, the photos just don’t do it justice. It was incredible to see the the sheerness of El Capitan standing opposite the graceful water dance of the falls. Anxious to see Yosemite’s treasures we headed to the valley floor that sits more than 3,000 feet beneath the granite formations around it.

First we checked out Bridalveil from its base. There are tons of warnings about climbing on the rocks around the falls and river. We were reminded once again that drowning is the number one cause of death in the national parks. Then another sign let us know that several people became quadriplegics last year as a result of falls on the rocks. So naturally we climbed on the rocks…but just a little bit.

The falls are more than 600 feet in height. Apparently, the native Americans believed that inhaling the mist from the falls would increase your chance of getting married!

After the falls, we drove past the meadow in the valley. It was a gorgeous day and the entire place was glowing in the autumn sun. As with most places in California, the park has been experiencing a severe drought, but the dry yellow grass was very complimentary to the scene. Waterfalls are everywhere in Yosemite, but most are barely a trickle at this time of year. Recently, the park got some snowfall and rain and many of the falls are running almost as well as in the spring. What a spectacular, lucky treat!

Yosemite Falls from the base of the canyon. Truly one of the most breathtaking views of our trip.

The beginning of the wet stone stairs approaching Vernal Falls.

Once we we able to tear ourselves away from the meadow, we headed to the end of the canyon to hike on of the most popular trails in the park. Called “The Mist Trail,” the path takes hikers from the floor of the valley up to several hidden waterfalls in the back country. We started late in the day, so decided to head up to Vernal Falls, a 1000-foot vertical hike in 1.5 miles. The trail has the reputation of being one of the deadliest in the park, with people slipping and falling into the water and being swept downstream to their watery graves. The trail is paved most of the way, but then becomes steep stone stairs, and later, wet ledges against the wall of the cliff (thankfully that part has safety rails).

The trail follows a rushing river full of glacial boulders most of the way. The blue green water churns and swirls around the granite rocks providing a pleasant distraction from the burning quads on the way up. But then the falls come into view…

Vernal Falls are normally not this robust at this time of year. Lucky, lucky, lucky us!

It quickly became apparent why this is called The Mist Trail. The wind created by the falls roars across the trail and the mist from the falling water is enough to make your clothes wet if you stand around. It must be amazing on hot summer days. The final ascent to the top of the falls was somewhat sketchy, but we made it and were able to take in the river at the top and view the scene below.

This is the view of the river flowing away from the falls. The Mist Trail follows it most of the way down.

This is the river at the top of the falls. It plunges more than 300 feet over the cliff just to the left (not shown).

Here is a video of the falls I took on the way back down:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOsXMA10fII]

By the time we were done taking photos, it was starting to get dark, so we headed back. Interestingly, we passed quite a few people heading up! We envied the people in the campground on the way back to the car, especially when we smelled marshmallows roasting!

We are heading back into the park tomorrow! I can’t wait to see what else is in store! Until then…ciao!