This is Yosemite National Park, California. Mr. W and I drove there last Thursday, checked into our hotel, then went to explore the Park and scope out potential activities to plan our visit. These are all photos taken with my cameraphone.

Famous landmarks: the steep cliff on the left is El Capitan; the waterfall to the right is Bridalveil Fall; behind the Fall toward the center of the photo is the silhouette of Half Dome. In between the mountains, the trees permeate Yosemite Valley.
A closeup of Upper Yosemite Falls from the Valley floor:

Here’s another angle looking up at Upper Yosemite Falls.

I looked up in the sky at one point and realized that the moisture in the air from the nearby waterfalls caused a rainbow halo to form around the sun. I tried to capture it with the cameraphone, but I didn’t do it justice. Here’s the gist anyhow:

This is Bridalveil Falls, from across the Merced River. Gorgeous Thursday.

We did a low-key hike to Lower Yosemite Falls, then made our way to the Visitor Center and spoke to some rangers there. They recommended that to avoid the crowd, we hit the popular long hikes early in the morning on a weekday, i.e. the next day, Friday morning. We decided to take the scenic 7.2-mile round trip hike up to Upper Yosemite Falls (2425 feet above the Valley floor; hiking this requires a 2700ft elevation gain). This is the highest waterfall in in North America. Yeah, you know the waterfall in the pictures? Yup, right to the top.

This is classified as an advanced, strenuous hike 6 to 8 hours in duration, with lots of switchbacks. It wasn’t very crowded, especially as we passed the halfway point and saw others turn around. The view along the way couldn’t be beat.


This is the half-way marker: the first glimpse of Upper Yosemite Falls from the hike path:

Curving around another bend approximately an hour later, tenacious hikers are rewarded with this moist angle:

“Don’t slip, don’t slip, don’t slip…”

Some more uphills and rocky switchbacks…

…and we’re finally there.

Walking to the Overlook…

It’s a scary thing when you realize you’re looking DOWN at the source of a waterfall:

At this point, I’m still higher than the Overlook. But I’m making my way down.

Let’s lean over and see where the waterfall goes, shall we?

I realized that day, as I laid belly-down over an unrailed cliff so that I could get a better look at nature with my binoculars, that I’m not scared of heights as I’d previously thought.

Looking down through binoculars, I was actually able to see our car parked below.

See the circular road below? The car’s at the bottom of the circle. I made a mental note to take a photo from the car pointing up to where I was now looking down. And here is that photo.

See the rock above and to the left of the waterfall? That’s where I was hanging down.

The next day, Saturday, our calves were so sore we could hardly walk (plus I think I tweaked my right knee a little since my hiking shoes were so old that I spent parts of the descent stepping awkwardly sideways so I didn’t slip more than I had to to my death), so we flip-flopped a shorter, flatter hike in the Mariposa Grove, where the tallest Sequoia trees live.

I love my $5 Hawaii flip flops; if I ever find my way there again I’m gonna buy 10 pairs. They were more comfortable to hike in than my worn hiking boots that gave me bruises under my toenails and blisters. They greatly eased my painful limping during this hike.

This is a taaaall tree. And I thought I felt short standing next to DWAINE…

Doe! A deer! A female dear! And her buck and fawn.

I thought this cabin in the clearing looked so quaint, I half-expected dwarves to run out as a black-haired cartoon girl chased after them with their suppers.

I saw these triplets, and I looked up…

…and up.

We soaked our sore legs in the hotel’s jacuzzi Friday night after the hike, then hung out at a nearby Starbucks for a nightcap. Saturday, we discovered an outdoor shopping and entertainment center close to our hotel and had the best Italian food we’d had in awhile. We also caught a movie. Guess which one:

Great movie, BTW. We saw it in 3-D. We drove back on Sunday and stopped by a great shopping outlet on the way, where I spent hundreds of dollars I didn’t expect to. Oh well. We also pulled over TWICE to catch the beginning and then later the end of the Lakers vs. Magic Finals Game 5, which turned out to be the series-winning game. Marie Callender’s bars: great place to watch games. Who knew?

Mr. W enjoyed the trip because this was his first time in Yosemite, where he’d always wanted to go, and he said he’d never seen so much natural beauty in one place. I enjoyed it cuz I actually had someone to hang out with at night; he didn’t hit the hay at his usual 9pm bedtime every night. Plus, the last time I was in Yosemite, I was a cranky 14-year-old on a family trip with my parents’ friends. I wasn’t terribly excited about it. Mr. W and I bought the annual pass which gets us into all federal parks around the country, so I’m going to invest in some hiking shoes and toss my 15-year-old slip-n-slide Nikes. This makes Mr. W happy, as I’m now intent on DOING stuff. Today, in fact, I helped organize an upcoming biking and camping trip with my jujitsu friends whom I hadn’t seen in a long time. I think I’ll be investing in a good bicycle, too, in anticipation of this trip.