About six months or so ago I set the goal of hiking to the top of Half Dome. Since then I have been working toward getting in good enough shape so that I could embark on the 18 or so mile hike comfortably. All that training paid off, but unfortunately I did not make it to the top of that granite monolith this trip.My mini vacation started on Wed with me picking up my dad from my grandma's house (he had driven down the day before from his home on the northern coast of CA). My dad likes to hike and he was more than willing to join the crew I was trying to put together. Our drive up to the park was a nice one. We stopped at a few of the fruit stands along the way in the central valley to get fresh fruit and snacks and made a long stop in Oakdale to pick up the rest of the food that we would need. We ended up getting to the park around 1-ish.
Once we were in the Sierra's we made several stops to check out various vistas and wildflowers. In the park I made most of my usual tour stops with dad - I certainly stopped at my favorites like the Big Meadow overlook, the take-your-breath-away view of Half Dome (pictured above), and at the upper portion of the Cascades bridge. We also tried out a couple of potential new tour stops. We skipped Bridalveil Falls and the Hwy 41 overlook at this point so that we could make sure that we got checked in to our tent cabin in Curry Village also by this time we were both hungry and wanting lunch.After we checked in and got our stuff a bit settled, we took off to have the before mentioned lunch and to repack our groceries at the Sentinel Beach/Yellow Pines picnic area. My experience has been that this little piece of heaven is not that crowded, even during peak season. When the Merced is lower there is quite a nice beach with picnic tables but when the river is high the beach is reduced considerably. The bad thing about this place is the mosquitos - there are tons of them there. After lunch and after I had made a couple of calls, I decided it would be cool to hike to the base of Sentinel Falls.
We made sure everything was put back in the car and we headed up Sentinel Creek. We didn't make it all the way up to the base of the falls due to my tender hamstring (I have been recently recovering from a knee injury and had stupidly strained my hamstring earlier that day). I wanted to make sure I was in the best shape possible for Half Dome that Saturday so I didn't want to push it on this little excursion. Once we turned around though, I realized that we had gained a good amount of elevation and the view was one I hadn't seen before. We had great views of Yosemite Falls and El Capitan. We concluded the day with hanging out on the swinging bridge watching a fish and eating pizza.
The next morning was beautiful and sunny. The weather up there in general was gorgeous the whole time. A bit warm sometimes, but really nice. Dad and I ate some breakfast and decided that we were going to go out to Hetch Hetchy. Before we left though we took a little stroll to the base of Yosemite Falls and hung out in the meadow below El Capitan looking for climbers. 
We took our time to get out to Hetch Hetchy and by the time we got there it was quite warm and a lot of people had decided to spend the day out there as well. The goal was to hike to the base of Wapama Falls, a waterfall that you can see from across the reservoir. It is about a 5 mile roundtrip hike. I usually have found this place to be a bit creepy. There is something disturbing about the dam and the silence of the flooded valley. This time though I didn't really find it creepy at all.
Our hike was very pleasant but on the warm side. Hetch Hetchy Valley is at a lower elevation than its cousin Yosemite Valley is so it gets warmer. I guess on this trail was when I realized that I really like taking pictures of flowers. I am finding that I really prefer the purple ones... On to the showstoppers though, we saw four waterfalls during our trek. The first was the unofficially named Madeline Falls. Low flow but you could easily see that it was impressive when there is more water. 
The second one we passed was the also unofficially named Hetch Hetchy Falls. These two are relatively small. The big attractions though are Tueeulala and Wapama Falls. One is a graceful tendril of water dropping down a granite cliff and the other is a jaw dropping massive torrent of water thundering down the wall of the canyon. Wapama is the first waterfall that I have seen since my rating system started that I would give a 5 to, hands down. I find myself wanting to be there when there is water going over the bridges so that I can feel the raw power. Maybe next year... We had our lunch on a ledge beside the waterfall and I took a bit of a nap before we made our way back to the car. That evening we had dinner at the cafeteria at Yosemite Lodge.
Friday dawned bright and beautiful. After breakfast, we rented bikes and rode around the the valley floor. Our first stop was Mirror Lake up Tenaya Canyon. Very beautiful and tranquil. Half Dome loomed above us, inviting us to hike to the top of it. From there we meandered our way to Yosemite Village where we played tourist and saw the visitors center and an art gallery. We got back on our bikes and rode down over the swinging bridge and back up the southside of the valley. We got back and had just enough time to catch some lunch before I went to meet my friend Mark at the park entrance so I could play tour guide. The rest of the day for me was spent giving the tour while my dad did laundry and went on a hike/scramble to the base of Washington Column. Alex showed up as well Friday evening but I didn't end up meeting up with him and his crew until the next morning. Dinner that night was pizza again.
This brings me to Saturday... the big day. I managed to talk 3 people in to embarking on this trek - my dad, Alex, and Mark - in total there were six people present. My morning started at about 4am. I could not for the life of me get good sleep. Added to that was some sort of chaos that erupted in the tent cabin next to mine at around 1:45 - maybe a raccoon got in there or something all I know is that there was some shouting going on. When I finally gave up and got up I was in the showerhouse at around 4:30 when the power went completely out... Talk about an adrenalin rush to wake you up. I am just glad that I had a flashlight and that the water didn't turn off too. By 5:15 the whole party was assembled and we were off to Glacier Point. This was about an hour drive. We parked the cars and got ready to start the hike. Before we left though we checked out the awesome view from the Glacier Point overlook. Half Dome loomed before us looking majestic in the morning light.
Our route took us down from Glacier Point along the Panorama Trail. The trail was just beautiful - well maintained and very pretty vistas. The first highlight of the hike was taking pictures of Illilouette Falls. Passing this waterfalls was one of the reasons I chose to leave from Glacier Point. From there we climbed a bit along the Panorama Cliffs and the we descended down to where we met up with the John Muir Trail which lead us ultimately to Nevada Falls. This waterfall is one of my favorite waterfalls, if not my absolute favorite. We all decided to take a little break here to snack and to snap pics. For me it was also time for a sock change. I have to say that the sock change helped to insure that I didn't get any other blisters on my feet than I already had from the previous days hiking. From Nevada Falls the trail runs up the Little Yosemite Valley and then curves up the ridge to the granite base of Half Dome.
When we got back on the trail again after our break at Nevada Falls there was a bit of confusion as to where our whole party was. We eventually all ended up together again and started the difficult part of the hike. Up, up, up we went. Along the way we ran in to a guy who was filtering water from a natural spring so we filled up which ended up being a good thing. There is a really steep section that you have to go up before you get to the cables that many people have said is more scary than the cables. By this time I was feeling pretty lousy. I had a sore throat since Wed night and it was really beginning to set in in earnest. I had high hopes though that I would still make it so I started up the steep granite section but had to stop repeatedly because I felt like I would pass out. By the time I got to the top, my sense of balance was shot and I was pretty much done. I made the decision not to continue up the cables as I knew it would be very physically demanding and I just wouldn't be able to do it safely. Mark was the only one to summit Half Dome that day. Dad and I made it to the cables, Alex and his son started up the steep granite part but turned back, and the last member of the party, Frankie stopped before the steep granite began. All in all we did a great job! It was about 9 miles from Glacier Point to the base of the granite of Half Dome and we all got there feeling relatively good.
We began the trek back and it seemed to go on forever. At the point where the Mist Trail breaks off, we had to stop to do a bit of foot care. Frankie's toes were a bit worse for wear so she got a foot massage from yours truly and dad cut the toes out of her shoes so that her feet would have more room. After that she made it down the 2500ft granite staircase that is the Mist Trail with considerably more energy than she had when we stopped. We ended up traversing a good portion of that trail in the dark as well (yep, even down the really misty slippery part but oh well it was an adventure). We all ended up back in Curry Village in one piece and we were able to just order a pizza before the place closed at 10pm. Our day wasn't over yet though. We still had to be shuttled back up to Glacier Point to retrieve the cars we had left up there that morning. Logistically it is a bit of a pain to leave from Glacier Point for this hike but I would do it again in a heartbeat. That hike is really lovely. My day ended around 1am or so (I think - I can't really remember when I collapsed in to bed).
Sunday started out late compared to my previous days during the trip. I slept in a bit but not much as we had to check out by 10am. After everything was packed and ready to go the decision was made to take a drive up the Tioga road to have a picnic lunch up at one of my favorite places - Tenaya Lake. The Tioga road had just opened up on Saturday. We had lunch up at the lake and then decided that since Tuolumne Meadows was right there we would take a quick trip up there as well to check things out. What pretty country it is up there - absolutely breathtaking. The last stop we made in the park was to hike one mile to the Tuolumne Grove of sequoia trees. Until very recently, I had not known that there were two other sequoia groves in Yosemite National Park. I knew about the Mariposa Grove of course but not the other two lesser known ones. This particular grove had about a dozen sequoia trees, none of the huge awe inspiring ones, but they were still big beautiful treesThat concludes the report of my Half Dome adventure. It was a great trip and one that I will have memories of for a long time to come. It has sort of inspired me to put together more of these types of trips. The future ones may not be as demanding as this particular one was but I am sure I can come up with fun stuff none the less!!! Yay, a new objective :-) Stay tuned!
