Day 17 (7/15) (Everyone – joint post) Another early start today to beat the crowds in Yosemite Valley and grab a parking spot. We opted to hike the Vernal Fall trail. It started out as a steep, paved, uphill trail, and we thought that was tough enough in some spots. And then we reached the stairs – 600 of them, often large and really steep! Well before we reached stairs, however, there was a nice bridge that crossed the river and gave a far-away view of the falls. The trail is called the “mist trail,” although the reason for it mystified us until we felt water in the air, which we almost missed. (Sorry – we pass time with bad puns.) The stair section of the trail afforded gorgeous views of the falls and the valley below, including a full rainbow created by the mist. The stairs took us right up almost even with the main part of the falls, and then hugged the cliff to the very top of the falls. Coming down was a bit easier, but more treacherous, especially in the misty wet area. Still, a very long six miles and up and down 1,000 feet in elevation!

After a quick lunch at the van, we fought traffic in the valley and found parking near the main visitor center, where Helena and Harrison handed in their Junior Ranger Paperwork (they had been fulfilling various duties throughout, including filling a trash and recycling bag of things they found along the trails). We also watched a movie and grabbed ice cream and drinks.

It’s amazing how crowded the Valley gets – just lines and lines of cars waiting to park and move through intersections. Back in the van, we drove until we were along side of El Capitan, likely the most famous and hardest rock climbing face in North America. Lin and Eden especially really wanted to hike in to the base of the face, but there isn’t an officially marked trail. We lucked out, though, and found a pretty decent unmarked rock climbers’ trail that took us straight to the dawn wall of El Cap (so called because the morning sunlight hits only that face), close to the nose that runs up the entire face. It was spell-binding. We all just sat or laid there, looking up 3,000 feet to the top. We all took a crack at climbing it, but couldn’t even make it a few feet. I’m sure there are other better places to start. And, ahem, we aren’t exactly rock climbers. But it gave us a whole new appreciation for people who go up that face. Wow. After 45 minutes or so of just basking in the power of that sheer granite wall, we hiked out again and headed back to the hotel for a quick swim and dinner.

After dinner we took a long drive up to Glacier Point, which is an incredible overlook high above the valley floor. On the way, though, we stopped at the Tunnel View lookout, which gives an amazing view looking eastward of the entire valley. The evening sun was just perfect and soft. As we climbed the long road to Glacier Point, it got brighter, as we got up out of the valley. So bright, in fact, that we decided to try to quickly hike to the top of Sentinel Dome (close to Glacier Point, and famed for its 360 degree views of the valley), but after half a mile, we realized it would take us too long, and we’d miss the sunset at Glacier Point. So we ditched that and headed to Glacier Point, where we watched the truly beautiful sunset over Yosemite Valley. The colors in the east (away from the sunset) turned an amazing pink and purple, and the light lingered on Half Dome, Cloud’s Rest, and all the other peaks for minute after minute. Finally, around 9, it was dark, but the mountains in the distance were still bathed in a soft glow. It was magical. Lin is pretty sure Glacier Point is one of his happy places.

It was a long, 14 hour day, and we likely logged over 10 miles of arduous hiking. I think we will all sleep well tonight!

(Note: if you click on the pictures, you can see them all larger in a slide show. Still very slow internet, so only a few pics.)