Yosemite National Park by Kenny
Posted on 2016-07-19
I was lucky enough to take a Business Trip out to San Jose, CA for a week or so and figured while I was there – I might as well enjoy the cools things California has to offer! There are so many cool things that happened in this trip it will be hard to stay on topic and fit them all in. But I will do my best!
One of the cool things that happened is I ran in to an olé’ high school friend while exploring San Francisco – Kristen! We met up and had dinner and excitedly day dream talked about all the adventures we wanted to do. Coincidently, Kristen had just finished a weekend of camping and hiking in Yosemite – which was where I was eventually heading to. After chatting about her trip and eating some dinner, somehow we concocted a plan to go to Glacier National Park later that year (See the post here). After Dinner we adventured through downtown Oakland and found this awesome ice cream shop that took warm cookies and made an ice cream sandwich with it. I had never seen a place like that before and neither had my body because I ‘bout went into a sugar coma.
My trip started out rough, I was up at 3am on the day of my departure puking until checkout time. My body wasn’t having it, but by this time I had nothing left to come up and I was determined to continue my journey. So I hit the road to lake Tahoe! It took a while but it was worth it, Tahoe was beautiful! I had to sleep in the car the first night which was no fun after being sick. I was up most of the night but that gave me a chance to drive around and explore. At this point I still hadn’t eaten anything and was attempting not to in spite of fear for puking again. Eventually I got some internet and booked a hotel after a conversation with my dad about deciding to come home or not – the sickness was strong. But he convinced me to sleep it off in a hotel for a night and continue on the next day – which is what I did. Turns out that was what I needed because I was feeling much better, but I was going on three days without eating so I nibbled on some light food and hoped for the best!
After doing some hiking in Tahoe, I headed south for the drive through the national forest down to Yosemite. This was definitely a highlight for me, the country was beautiful. Since I had no real destination or time, I explored all I could on the drive down. Did some hiking, climbing, and clue leaving in some random parts of the forest. One of my favorites was stumbling upon Alpine lake. The weather was warm, the elevation was high and the lake was clear blue, so I figured I needed to take a dip. The water was cold but this seemed like an awesome swimming hole! Continuing down I made it to Sonora which was a super pretty town that looked to be built up as a destination area for those going to hike Yosemite. My stay was in Jamestown down the road where I found a cheaper hotel to stay and planned on leaving bright and early to head to Yosemite.
Since I was still recovering from my sickness, I still hadn’t eaten much So I was nervous for the hike. I packed up all the water bottles I had and loaded them in my backpack, along with some food I had stashed up and headed to the park. The drive was still fairly long and once I arrived the entrance was flooded with vehicles. I hadn’t prepared for this, I had no idea where the hikes started, where to park, or where to go. All I knew is I wanted to hike half dome but felt like I would be pretty weak from not eating so I just wanted to hit the trails and see some sights. Somehow I stumbled into the Half Dome village parking lot so I figured that was an ok place to park (I’m pretty sure you needed a pass in there but I made it out without a ticket at the end of the day – win).
Thus the hike began, as I walked around looking for where to get on the trials, I found a bus stop people seemed to be using, so I hopped on and it took me to the start of the Mist trail, which I had heard good things about. So I figured that would be good if half dome wasn’t going to happen (turns out you need a permit for that one anyway so it worked out) then the waterfalls would be just as good. The thing about this trail though – it was mad steep and mad crowded. Since I don’t like to stop, I passed quite a lot of folk on the way up and once you hit the first falls (Vernal) it became much less populated (although still busy). Exquisite!
Moving forward I was feeling pretty tired after the first climb but figured “I’m here now, might as well keep going” so I continued up to Nevada Falls which were just as pretty. You could stand right beside the water and it was an extremely satisfying feeling. Being at the top you could view Yosemite Valley in all its glory. I can only imagine what this place looks like in snow, but I can say I want to come back and see it that way at some point. Also at this point, there was a sign that said Half dome was only 4.5 miles away and I was hard pressed not to turn there and continue forward. But at this point I was nearly 7 miles in and still had to drive back to San Jose that night to catch my flight in the morning. So I decided to round out the trip heading down the John Mur trail back to the village. This trail was brilliant towards the top and winded down back to the hilly areas of the mist trail start. Once making it back to the base, I found a shower and rinsed off – which felt great- and headed back to the car to head back to San Jose. This place was amazing and I hope to make it back out here when I am not sick to hopefully spend some more time. Absolutely Stunning!
