The land of the beautiful

Yosemite never fails me in awe, beauty and enjoyment. Even if I just sat in my camp chair doing nothing staring up at the towering walls of natural wonder, I would still get as much satisfaction and peace out of it as much as I would packing my time with activity. It is my favorite natural destination so far.

All together there were 13 of us.

The first day we did the 7-mile round-trip steep and as we found out, a bit strenuous hike to Upper Yosemite Falls, the highest waterfall in the United States.

The hike up to Yosemite Falls was amazing with Half Dome in the distance.Reaching the top of Yosemite Falls was worth it for the view.

The next day, most of us were wiped out from doing Yosemite Falls. Poor planning? Possibly! But 5 of us still got up at 4:30 am to start the hike to Half Dome Sunday morning. We drove 45-minutes through the Park and began our hike on the Panorama Trail. The trail took us down to Nevada Falls, then we began our long ascent up to Half Dome.

I was trying out a new pair of boots. Not super smart...The hike can be deceiving because when you get to the granite portion, you think you're at the cables, but not so. You still have to hike the stone steps. It's the top part as shown in the picture that the cables begin. Getting to the cable was the easy part...waiting the 45-minutes to even start the climb up the cables was the grueling part. I had done the cable once before, this time was scarier. I just didn't remember it being so steep...and so scary! And anytime a waterbottle came tumbling down, I imagined myself careening off the side. Frightening!But we made it and it was beautiful. Unfortunately, Eva wasn't able to join us and as we were frolicking in the snow and taking awesome pics, she was doubled over at the bottom of the rock waiting for us to come back. Poor kid...I tried to make an angel but I wasn't all that successful.
This is at the top of Vernal Falls which gives the Misty Trail its mistyness. I've never seen the water flow this powerful! Sarah and I were able to get away for a few moments Sunday morning to try out our new binoculars. I've always wanted to check out the climbers on El Capitan, but that morning, we just weren't able to find any...It was still nice to sit and relax and enjoy El Capitan.