Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Mist and John Muir Loop Trail to Vernal and Nevada Falls
Slept awesome last night! It got down to 40 degrees outside and 54
degrees in the tent cabin, despite blasting the heater. I woke up
cold at 5:30 a.m., added a third wool blanket, and slept another
two hours.
It's just a short walk to the coffee shop, but at 7:30 a.m., it
seemed everyone in camp was there. I learned it's better to wait
till the general store opens at 8:00 and get coffee there. That is,
unless you require coffee that requires a barista. Our coffee
merely requires coffee, plus as little interaction with people as
possible until after the coffee has been consumed. We drank coffee
and ate pizza, packed snacks and lots of water, and headed out for
a hike. The weather is beautiful today, sunny and a high of about
70 - Great for hiking!
Today we hiked to Vernal and Nevada Falls. At 10:30 we set out from
the Happy Isles trailhead parking lot toward the Mist Trail, the
most popular trail in Yosemite. This trail provides great views of
Yosemite's mountains, domes, spires, and of course Vernal and
Nevada Falls.
The Mist Trail starts as a wide paved path with a not-so-steep rise
to a footbridge over the Merced River, then changes abruptly to a
grueling climb up more than 600 granite steps to the top of Vernal
Fall. The trail gets its name from the wind-blown mist coming from
the 317-foot-high fall that soaks hikers as they climb the stairs.
I had a poncho for this piece of the hike, but Tom just got
wet.
Mist
Trail
Jana at Vernal
Fall
Vernal
Fall
Rainbow
From Vernal Fall, we continued up the Mist Trail toward
594-foot-high Nevada Fall. It's pretty strenuous to get to the top,
but it's totally worth it. Nevada Fall is the most breathtaking
waterfall I have ever seen! It's a dizzying view from the top,
looking down the rushing whitewater. At Nevada Fall we crossed a
footbridge and returned via a portion of the John Muir Trail.
Nevada
Fall
The top of Nevada
Fall
Dizzying
vantage!
Descending the John Muir rather than returning via the Mist Trail
was a good choice because we avoided most of the crowd and all of
the 600 steep stone steps. Tom has a bum knee, and the wet stairs
going down was a bad option. Heck, if we'd gone back that way, I
might have developed a bum knee too. Or maybe a busted head. The
steps are much easier going up, I think. There were great views on
the descent of Nevada Fall with Liberty Cap in the background.
Liberty Cap and Nevada
Fall
Incidentally, we added 1.2 miles to our hike today by driving
instead of taking the shuttle to the trailhead. An additional .6
mile was nothing in the morning, but at the end of the day, that .6
mile sure seemed like a long way! All told, we hiked 8 miles, with
an elevation change of 1,900 feet.
For an aperitif this evening, we cut up a pint of extremely
delicious strawberries and our ripest cherries, covered them with
tequila, and added orange juice. The camp raccoons wanted to share,
but we did not! For our main course, we dined on salami-and-cheese
sandwiches, with a side of Doritos. Fine dining in the great
outdoors!
Tom prepares
refreshments
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