Today we took on a steeper trail to Vernal Falls. We only hiked to the bridge which is about half way up the trail. We skipped the 1000 foot climb part of the trail.
At the bottom of the trail the stream is flowing well. We were hopeful that the falls would be actively flowing.
When we reached the bridge, we discovered that the falls did have significant water flow. You can see the falls near the top of the photo. It disappears a little into the mist.
We took a selfie here to show where we stopped our ascent.
You can see how rocky the path of the stream is coming down from Vernal Falls.
We were planning on hiking to Mirror Lake, but the roads to the trailhead were closed. A ranger said we could walk to the trailhead, but it would have changed our hike from about two miles to almost eight miles. We decided to pass on that hike, especially since the lake was dry anyway.
We went back to our room for a while. Then we decided to just drive the Valley Road and stop where we felt like it.
That turned out to be a really great idea. We got to do some exploring on some less used trails like this one that leads to the bottom of El Capitan.
On that same trail, we found this huge boulder. It is between 20 and 25 feet tall, and is about 40 feet long on each of its four sides. It looks like it fell from about 200 feet up El Capitan sometime in the past.
While the boulder was huge, it is tiny in comparison to the giant 3000 foot El Capitan. Seeing the largest granite monolith in the world makes most things look small.
We stopped at a bridge that crosses the Merced River. We had fun looking at the peaceful river flowing below the tall granite cliffs and the beautiful trees.
There is a meadow of the loop road where it is said John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt spent some time discussing Yosemite and the need for the National Park System. I cannot attest to the location of the meeting, but we certainly enjoyed our time sitting in the meadow taking in the sites.
There are giant trees, impressive mountains, and the Merced River.
And there was a very comfortable seat on a rock in the meadow where you could consider the size of El Capitan again.
Or ask yourself, Is this the tree that John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt sat under during their meeting?
We found a second place to spend some time on the Merced River.
It seems every part of this river has a gorgeous view.
We stopped at Cathedral to admire the large rock spires
We also spent some time exploring the woods below the Cathedral. We found some evidence of someone’s food that a bear managed to drag off and enjoy, The boxes and cans were destroyed and the food was gone.
We also spent some time at Sentinel Rock. It is unbelievable how the rocks go straight up to the sky.
From Sentinel Rock, we struck out across a meadow to find the Merced River again.
This time we hit the jackpot. From this point on the river you can see key landmarks up and down the valley. Because the sun was beginning to set, the light on the cliffs was even more beautiful.
There was 360 degrees of amazing vistas.
This perspective of El Capitan shows how massive it really is.
Looking back across the meadow to the sunlight low in the sky was exhilarating..
Our next stop on our exploration tour was Yosemite Falls. While there was almost no water coming over the falls, You can see how wide a path the water takes as it plummets 2400 feet to the valley floor.
We ended our exploration at Half Dome shortly before sunset. It is hard to describe the feeling of seeing this iconic Yosemite view when the sunlight is making it glow like gold instead of its normal gray granite color.
In addition to the huge vistas, Yosemite is filled with plants and flowers of many sizes, shapes and colors. Here are a few of what we saw today.
We were disappointed to miss Mirror Lake, but we ended up replacing one disappoint with several wonderful surprises. You sometimes need to release your disappointments to get to see the joys available in life.