Waterfalls in Yosemite

 

Waking up amongst the tall redwoods that we did not see coming into our site in the dark last night, like any time we arrive to a new location in the dark, is a very welcome surprise. They tower mightily over the van, their pinecones and needles scattered all over the ground around us, their scent perfuming the air as we drive into Yosemite bright and early this morning. 

The valley opens up before us, waterfalls glowing in the sunlight of the rising sun. But it's cold - there's no snow, even though we rented the snow chains in preparation for that eventuality, but the air is crisp. We park at the trailhead to Bridalveil falls, make some hot oatmeal to fuel our day, and start our visit of some of the beautiful sights of Yosemite National Park.

Bridalveil falls is a short loop trail, up to the base of the falls and back, one of those super-attractive ones for day-trippers, as it offers maximum reward for minimum effort. It's also how Mario and I decide what parts of a trail to follow, and which ones to skip on. If it's just more of the same hiking, but with less views, or a harder hike with more of the same views, we tend to cut our losses. This hike, mind you, is short and sweet, has some fun off-trail climbing, and a WATERFALL. Beat that. Granted, the trail is a little slick from the morning dew freezing, and Mario realizes this when he slides down one rather large boulder, but comically slow, and decides that's enough climbing for this hike!

El Capitan towers over us in the bright morning light

Bright morning reflections in the river

We hit up the Visitor's Center for stickers, and then hike through Yosemite Village. That's right, this place is so big, it has not one, but TWO villages in its valley. Today, it's very quiet, but the lodges are full, and the campgrounds busy, but the roads are calm and parking is free everywhere - I would not want to be here in the height of summer, and on a weekend. Sheer chaos, I bet. In the village, we pass a post office, and I pick up stamps for the rest of the trip. The clerk on duty askes how we're paying, cash or card. Mario jokes that he will pay in gold bars - turns out that there are still people prospecting for gold in the park, even today! We decide to pay in cash.

Next door is the Ansel Adams Museum. If you don't know who Ansel Adams is, he is often considered the forefather of modern photography, and his B&W prints are studied in detail in every history of photography class I have ever taken, for their brilliant use of lighting and contrast. Turns out, this museum was where he lived, and his family still operates it. There are prints for sale, books, postcards, and tons of beautiful pieces for sale from other artists, but the walls are lined with huge frames prints of views in the park, and other parks around the area, and shots of Ansel Adams with his box camera on top of an old station wagon with wooden panelling. It feels like a pilgrimage that every self-declared photographer needs to take once in their life, and I didn't even know it was here.

Past the park, we follow another short, enjoyable hike up to the base of the Lower Yosemite Falls. Every so often as we walk, we catch glimpses of the Upper Falls through the trees, or past the cliff's edge, and the sun hits it at an angle which creates a rainbow around its mist. It's quite the sight, and apparently quite the hike, too, but we'll be keeping that one for a future trip - no zipper trails up a steep incline today, thank you.

The elusive Redwood Bellybutton - found it!	Both Upper and Lower falls
Half-Dome, a well-known rock climbers' goal

Here's a great tip for anyone wanting to camp off-grid: Get a parks pass. Not only does it pay for itself after about 3 or 4 park visits, but combine that with the fact that you have free access to all the park facilities, which includes the campground dump stations, even if you are not staying there. Which means you can empty, and fill, your water, grey, AND black tanks, all in the same place, for FREE. You don't realize how valuable this is until you begin searching for locations to dump, or to fill up water, and everyone seems to charge a fee now. So for us, a quick trip to the campground to use the dumping station was in order before hitting our next hiking trail.

One last hike for the day, this one to Mirror Lake. We take the forest trail, where it seems everyone else is following the currently-closed access road: flat and easy, but no challenge. We walk among trees, over rocks, down dirt trails. The scent of the damp forest is intoxicating as we make our way down to a gravely beach next to the glassy smooth water of the Mirror Lake. You can guess why it got that name. The PB&J sandwiches taste especially delicious today, sitting on a rock in the sun, on the far side of a mirror-like lake, giving us a double mountain vista to gawk at.

Hiking among the redwood & pines	Tall Redwoods
Mario climbing the rocky shore	Lunch break on the shore of Mirror Lake
Mirror Lake - gorgeous reflections	Hiking round the world!

Back at the camper, a few more chores to take care of: Mail some postcards, post yesterday's blog, and research a campsite near Sequoia National Park for tonight. We need to take advantage of the good internet here, all the big trees have been blocking it. Then we begin the big climb up and out of the valley, over those mountains we drove through in the dark last night, but this time in the light of the setting sun. There are so many pull-offs and viewpoints to tempt us, and the views are AWESOME, but we need to climb back into the mountains again to get to Sequoia.

Viewpoint!	Check out that view! And the moon!
Tunnel through the mountains	You can see the roadway across the valley!
Area scarred by forest fires

First, we go down, down, down, into Fresno. We stop for coffee. The night comes quickly in winter, and even though it is only 6:30pm, it feels like 11pm. The coffee boost and walkabout give us enough energy to push back up into the mountains, into the Park, and into Potwisha Campground for the night. Overlanding was not a good option, and this place will ensure we are that much closer to the trails tomorrow. But I think the sun, and all that driving, wore us both out - it takes 3 tours of the campground before we find our site, and we crash into bed as soon as we finish dinner.

(Potwisha. Heh. Makes me laugh every time.)