Checking the weather prior to our departure from San Francisco
didnt have us looking forward to this part of the trip but it worked out in our
favour when the Park Ranger told us the only reason there were spaces in the
campground was because of the terrible weather on the way!
Regardless of what the weatherman had in his forecast, we had
planned to visit Yosemite for its hiking, trekking and picturesque landscape
and that is exactly what we did during our stay.
A quick tally at the end of our stay indicated just how much
hiking we managed to do during our stay at Yosemite National Park. Between our
three active days we had managed to walk/hike up and down approximately 40km
with a total combined climb of 2100 m.
Sensing a break in the weather our first hike was to the top of
the world renowned Yosemite Falls which took us past the famous Camp 4 (the base
for the serious rock climbs taking place in the area including El Capitan). The
falls are in total almost 1km tall split between three smaller drops and are
visible throughout the Yosemite Valley. Reaching the top of the falls we found
ourselves surrounded in a dense fog which stopped us from a potentially amazing
view, but provided a different eerie feel!
In an attempt to keep out of the rain, we cracked out the tarp for
its first use which meant testing out some knot tying skills and utilising some
of our engineering expertise to survey and determine the best location, best
tree to tie to and how to shade as many windows! Emma got her Girl Guide cap
out and can now tie a handy knot or two =) (with the help of the rabbits)
Day two had our map reading skills in full swing as we made our
way from the parking lot toward Mirror Lake and found ourselves climbing
unexpectedly to the top of Vernal Falls. We managed to complete both of the
walks during the day in time to check out the information centre in the
afternoon including a short film on the history of the Yosemite area and how it
had become the national park that it is today. The timing was perfect as we
managed to find ourselves indoors for what was the most intense thunderstorm
either of us had seen in a number of years; thunder, green clouds and hail
filled the valley over a 45 minute period and left everyone in crisis mode.
Luckily the clouds parted and remained that way for the remainder of our stay.
The final day of hiking was another well-known trail by the name
of Four Mile (which is somewhat deceiving as it is actually a 5 mile hike to
the summit) which winds its way up the mountain to Glacier Point; a wonderful
viewpoint for the Yosemite Valley and Half Dome. We took our time on the way up
stopping to take lots of photos and rest our somewhat tired legs!! The view
from the top was amazing but there was also a car assessable road to the top
which meant we enjoyed the view with a lot of tourists who hadn't climbed the
gruelling hill!!
Before we headed west toward the coast, on the final morning we
managed to fit in a photo walk with one of the local professionals who has spent
over 3 years in Yosemite. It was not so much a how to use your camera course,
but more about how to select a suitable photograph arrangement and explained
how photographers did their post photography editing back in the day! We both
found it really useful as we start to use the camera more and more to try and
create some print worthy photos. Hopefully one day I will get a chance to play
with Photoshop and do some post photo editing to see what I can come up with =)
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