Yosemite Walkabout

Here are the pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/demerson/upperyosemitefallstrail/

I'm taking this week of Thanksgiving off from work, and needed to start it off with a bang, so I planned a fairly spontaneous hiking trip to Yosemite for this past Saturday (11/18). It's November, but it weather reports all looked pretty nice for the area at 65F and mostly sunny. It's been about ten years since I've been up there, so I scoured some hiking sites and decided on hiking the Upper Yosemite Falls Trail which weighed in at 7 miles round-trip, and labeled as 'Strenuous'.

Not knowing the drive or how long it would take I got an early start leaving around 4:45am, and got to the park around 7:30 or so. Upon entering the park the first sights of El Capitan were amazing and got me to stop for some picture taking. The size of the park was incredible, but it was pretty easy to find the trailhead for the falls.

The Lower Falls Trail is a nice easy stroll that give you a great view of the bottom of the falls, and has a very nice, clean restroom nearby. If you care to check this out you can start by parking near the very obvious 'Yosemite Falls' shuttle stop. Theres a path that will lead you from the lower falls to the trailhead for the Upper Falls that is about a quarter mile away. Or, if you want to jump stright into the Upper Falls Trail, you can park at Camp 4 which will put you right at the trail head.

The trail can kind of be divided into three sub-sections, lower, middle, and upper falls. The lower falls portion may seem a bit difficult but it gets a lot worse :o). Its medium grade switchbacks on mostly dirt and some embedded rock. Watch for the first overlook; I would call this the end of the lower portion of the trail. From here it gets a bit more difficult through the middle portion of the trail which takes you more latterally across the mountainside which is still a lot of switchbacks mostly over dirt and rock. Eventually it opens up and you can see the upper falls in front of you, and a great view of the valley below. It gave me a wierd sense of vertigo, and you realize how far you've gone, and how much higher you still have to go. You'll now see the steep wooded path ahead of you to your left, and the falls to the right. This is what I'd call the start of the upper falls portion of the trail. It gets really difficult though this section which is a high grade of mostly rock steps leading you the rest of the way up.

There are almost no signs between the base of the trail, and the top. But there is no change of getting lost: you learn to both love and hate the switchbacks. Once you reach the top, you'll be greeted with a fork in the road: 0.2mi to The Overlook, and about another path leading the Yosemite Point and North Dome. I checked out the Overlook first which offered killer views of the valley floor far below, but almost no view of the falls themselves. There's a large open outcrop around this area that give you plenty of room to explore and enjoy your arrival.

Eventually I came back to the fork in the trail, and took the North Dome trail a ways which lead to a bridge which allows you to get very close to the water that feeds the falls. After a quick play in the water to cool down I started my way back down the trail. By now there were a lot more people who'd arrived and were heading to the top. They all wanted to know, 'is there water up there?', 'can you touch the water?', and, 'how much farther?' The descent was much quicker and easier on the legs than the ascent, but it felt MUCH more dangerous. You have to pace your self and not let gravity want to take you too fast. The rocks in the trail are fairly solid, but very uneven and it's very easy to slip, and a hard fall could be very painful. What else... the views of half dome were awesome, and I can't wait to try and conquer it's 18-mile trail in the spring.