The Wonders of Yosemite National Park

During our week-long stay at Park of the Sierras, we're very excited about going to two more national parks. We checked the weather forecast, and headed to Yosemite National Park on the best weather day. It's only 30 miles from our camp site to the southern entrance of the park. But with roads that twist and turn through the mountains, the drive takes a while.

Then it's another 30 miles to get to the one-mile tunnel at the entrance of Yosemite Valley. Sounds like a short drive, but that takes over an hour of driving as well. So even though we're camping just 30 miles from one of the entrances to the national park, it's almost a two-hour drive to get to the "good stuff." The good news is we didn't need those tire chains that we now have on board. We finally made it through the tunnel, where we stopped for the iconic "tunnel view" picture of Yosemite Valley.

We got a detailed list of things to see and do from the Visitor Center in Oakhurst where we stopped for information earlier this morning. The helpful volunteer instructed us to take a picture here, as a billion pictures have been taken from this view point. We guess this makes one billion and two pictures. To the left you can see El Capitan. In the very center and farthest away is Cloud's Rest, and just to right of it you can barely see the sheered off face of Half Dome in the distance. To the near right we see Bridal Veil Fall. Yosemite Valley is only seven miles long and one mile wide, and we're planning to see all those things and more before the day is over.

Our plan was to work our way down the valley, stopping to take hikes and stare in wonder at the granite walls as we go. With all the rain and snow this winter, we had heard that the waterfalls would be at their best this year, and we weren't disappointed. Our first stop was at Bridalveil Fall, where the mist even from this distance gave us a soaking. That water is falling from 620 feet above us, and the roar meant we had to yell to carry on a conversation.

All of this water is racing towards the Merced River that runs through the middle of the valley. Normally a placid little stream, this spring it is roaring with all the snow melt from the mountains above.

After our short hike to Bridalveil Fall, we began getting a real feel for Yosemite as we looked around at our surroundings. The sun was just getting high enough in the sky to reach over the tall granite walls over the falls. You'll see in this picture that some of the pine trees in the park are sadly bare. The pine bark beetle has made it to Yosemite as well.

Across from us was the massive rock--El Capitan. Rising 3,569 feet above the valley floor, it is the largest single granite rock on earth. Rock-climbers from all over the world come to inch their way up that face.

Yosemite Valley is formed by these giant granite walls that rise over a half-mile above the valley floor. For most of the length of the valley there is a grassy meadow and the roaring river that separate the walls of the valley.

That also leaves room for some forest, and a road that runs the length of the valley. During the summer this road can get incredibly congested with cars, so the national park provides a free shuttle service with drop-off points along its length. Since we were visiting during the off-season, traffic wasn't bad.

But we decided to park our car at the little parking lot next to the Chapel. This is the oldest building still in use inside the park. Built in 1879, it still holds regular services throughout the week.

From its front lawn is a great view of the park's name-sake falls. Yosemite Falls is flowing at maximum capacity this year!

We walked across the meadow towards the roar of the falls. That's Denisa in the lower left hand corner of the picture, with Lower Yosemite Fall in the background. The lower fall is 320 feet tall, so it's a very respectably sized waterfall all by itself.

Of course, Mark scrambled over the rocks to get a little closer to the falls. Even at this distance we were having to continually wipe the camera lens because of all the mist in the air. This waterfall is fed entirely by melting snow, so it's almost as cold as ice this time of year. Often by late summer, this waterfall is completely dry. So we are blessed to see Yosemite Falls at its most boisterous.

Mark scrambled to a new vantage point to see more of the falls. You see, the first two pictures just show the lower one-third of North America's tallest falls. It's hard to catch it all in one picture from down below because the water actually roars down from Yosemite Creek over one of the tallest granite walls in the park. So this picture shows a bit of the top of the falls as well.

We walked a little further along the path to take a picture that got more of the drop from the top. Yosemite upper falls drops 1,430 feet. Then there are the middle falls of an additional 675 feet. When you add in the lower falls, you can see water coming off this granite face from 2,425 feet above. That makes it the tallest waterfall in the United States, and the fifth tallest in the world. It also shows a bit more of the crowd at the bottom. This was the most congested area we found this day, but we're guessing this path can be very crowded during peak season.

Mark had read that bicycles are allowed on the Valley View Trail that encircles the entire valley. Since we always have ours with us on the car, we decided to give that mode of transportation a try. Unlike the congested Yosemite Falls path, this was a wonderfully lonely trail that took us through the tall forests at the valley floor.

We found that for us, bicycles were the perfect way to get around Yosemite National Park. We didn't have to worry about finding a parking space in the crowded parking lots. We didn't have to worry about the stop-and-go traffic. They are doing road construction during this off-season that is making it almost impossible to drive to certain areas of the valley. So we loved having our bikes to ride along the uncrowded valley trail. We did find, however, that certain sections were definitely for hiking only. But in these areas we were free to ride on the roads that were now closed to car traffic.

We rode our bikes all the way to the end of the valley, where the grassy meadow is taken over by lakes.

Our favorite was Mirror Lake. We could get a perfect picture of the granite walls reflected in the water.

A zoomed-in picture shows Denisa was standing out on that little rock peninsula. This was a fun find, and almost no one was here with us. It would be quite a walk from the nearest shuttle drop-off point, but was a quick bike ride for us.

There was no wind, so absolutely no ripples in the water. We've traded places now, with Mark standing on top of the boulder at the end of the peninsula. The reflection in the water is actually clearer than the actual granite peaks far behind him.

We have already done a lot of walking and biking, but now we were ready for some real hiking. So we locked up the bikes at the beginning of the Vernal Falls trail and headed straight up the mountain.

This trail sounds deceptively short at only 3 miles. But almost every step is a rise in elevation.

After getting through the lower paved section, we passed the bridge and headed up the rocky stairs. This was like an endless stairway to heaven. You can see Denisa in her burgundy blouse at the bottom of this section of steps. You can also see that we are finally in sight of Vernal Falls and the blue sky above it.

With all the mist in the air from the falls, there are rainbows in the air. Mark caught this rainbow at the bottom of the picture. There's a reason this is called the Mist Trail.

Taking pictures of rainbows is as much fun as pictures at Mirror Lake. Mark got this full arch rainbow. He also got a picture of the continuing rock staircase we are headed up. You can see a hiker that came prepared with a full green rain poncho.

The views were beautiful, but hard to capture. The camera had to be wiped off after every picture, and it was getting harder to find anything dry enough to wipe it off. We have been blessed with beautiful blue-sky weather, but it felt like it was raining where we were standing.

Mark was taking pictures because Denisa couldn't see through her glasses any more. That made it trickier to wind our way through the puddles on the stairs. There were traffic jams in areas where the water completely covered the steps.

Denisa wishes she would have counted the number of steps in this never-ending flight of stairs to the top. This staircase clung to the side of the mountain as we got close to the top.

We finally made it to the top of Vernal Falls! We could stand at the point where the falls rushed over the edge of the mountain. From here we could see that water was actually a tannin-stained brown instead of the foamy white.

It was 317 feet down to the first drop at Vernal Falls.

We were frankly surprised at the number of people at the top of the falls. You can see them scattered to the right of the water, basking in their accomplishment of making it to the top. We consider ourselves to be seasoned hikers, and this was a tough climb.

We were certainly dreading that wet hike back down those endless steps. Sometimes going down can be harder, and the wet-slick steps would be a fall hazard with every step. There are very few hand railings, and the prospect of falling head-long down all those rock stairs is a bit un-nerving. We asked several hikers about the option of an alternate way down, but everyone said the steps were the only way to go. But our trail map showed a longer alternative, so we decided to give it a try. The bad news is we had to go higher in elevation before we could go lower. But that gave us a photo opportunity of the falls from above. They don't seem so tall from the view here.

Also from atop the mountain we saw Nevada Falls and more beautiful granite domes in the distance. We thinks those are Half Dome, Mount Broderick, and Liberty Cap, but there aren't exactly name tags on these giant mountain tops.

We would see countless temporary waterfalls this day that aren't on the map. There is so much water from the melting snow pack that the granite walls are glistening wet in the sunlight. We wish there was a way to bring some scale to the size of this wall in front of us. As we look to the top, we see tiny specks  of trees that are probably 30-40 feet tall.

Against the advice we got, we did manage to find our way down on the John Muir Trail. It was a longer route, but much kinder and gentler in the long run. Besides, we had the entire hike to ourselves. So we enjoyed the green velvet rocks and the occasional snow banks alone.

We had plenty of time to see these magnificent mountains and the granite walls down to the valley as we hiked to the base. We have truly wandered among His wonders this day!

After a day of clear blue skies, we saw that the clouds were rolling into the valley over the mountains.

As we rode our bikes back down the valley, we saw that the clouds were now covering the top of Yosemite Falls.

The crowds were thinner at the end of the day. The people in the meadows were now replaced by a herd of deer.

We were a little envious of the people that were spending the night at Yosemite National Park, and didn't have to make the long drive home now. We rode our bikes past several different campgrounds. Some had small trailers and pitched tents. But we also saw row upon row of these curious permanent tent structures that can be rented in the park.

For a less rustic (and more expensive) stay, one can rent a room at the Majestic Yosemite Hotel. The national park has changed from their long-time concessionaire in the last year. A law suit declared that the concessionaire owned the naming rights that have been used in Yosemite Valley for many years. So there is all new signage that changes the lodge name from "The Ahwahnee" to "The Majestic Yosemite Hotel." To eat dinner in its dramatic 34-foot-tall dining room, one must follow formal dress code, and we didn't see anything on the menu that we could afford.

So we headed out of the park, with one more wayward glance to the roaring falls that are now in the clouds.

We took the longer drive home through the north entrance, glad to see more beautiful landscape before it got too dark. This thundering waterfall wasn't even on the map, so we assume it is another of the temporary falls that will be gone soon.

We have had a full day at Yosemite National Park. Some of the roads were still closed because of snow, but we wouldn't have had time for any more beautiful sights today anyway. We managed to hike over ten miles, and biked many more. We were tired by the end of the day! That gives us an excuse to come back for a summer trip to see the rest of the park.

It would get dark before we made the two-hour drive back to our camp site at Park of the Sierras. We were glad to find a Burger King in one of the sleepy little mountain towns we passed through. It wasn't exactly a meal at The Majestic Yosemite Hotel, but we had feasted all day on God's wonders and our souls were full.