Hiking in Yosemite

One of the places I’ve wanted to visit for a long time is the Yosemite National Park, located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This week, we were going to make this wish come true…

So, early Tuesday morning, we jumped in the car and headed west. It’s quite a drive to Yosemite, so we stopped over for lunch at Jamestown, a gold rush era town, not far from Sacramento, where we’d been just a couple of days earlier. We found a very nice little saloon (which was actually a bit of a historic landmark, dating back to the 19th century – a couple of US presidents had even stopped there for some food).

We arrived in the National Park in the afternoon, and made our way straight to our hotel, in Wawona (Wawona is one of the communities in the national park – the other one being Yosemite Valley village). We were already treated to some rather stunning views over the Yosemite Valley during the drive to Wawona.

Our hotel was quite a historic landmark as well – also dating back to the 19th century. It’s entirely constructed from wood, and has retained a fair bit of its old world charm. We spent the first night in "the lobby room" (a small room located on the ground floor, by the piano bar!), due to an unfortunate mistake in our planning (we arrived a day early!). Not the most convient room in the hotel... But never mind, the most important thing is that we had a place to sleep for the night! (Accommodation in Yosemite is rather scarce).

Before retiring for the day, we decided to visit nearby Mariposa Grove, famous for its Giant Sequoia trees. These giants are not as tall as the redwood trees we saw in Muir Woods, but have much thicker trunks, so are perhaps in the end more imposing. We checked out the main sights in the grove, including Old Grizzly (one of the oldest and biggest trees in the grove – it is indeed an impressive sight!) as well as the tunnel tree (another rather huge tree with a hole in it big enough to probably fit a small car). After dinner at the hotel (the dining options are also rather limited in Yosemite…), we retired at our lobby room.

The next day, it was time for some serious hiking. We started off by visiting the rather impressive bridal veil waterfalls, which are on the way to Yosemite Valley from Wawona. We had chosen the perfect time to visit Yosemite, from the point of view of waterfalls viewing, as the melting slow up in the Sierra Nevadas provide plenty of water for the waterfalls…

We then made our way into the valley, and decided to do a walk up to Yosemite Falls (the highest waterfalls in the park). It’s quite a strenuous walk, representing a height difference of nearly 1000 meters. After some rather strenuous climbing, we finally arrived at our first stop, Columbia rock, from where we were treated to some rather stunning views over the Yosemite Valley (including the famous Half Dome Mountain). From there, the hike leveled off somewhat, taking us towards Yosemite Falls. Finally, the waterfall came into view – a stunning sight, I can honestly say! Our walk took us quite close to the fall, close enough for us to even get wet (the amplitude of the waterfall is quite considerable, considering we got wet, even standing at least a hundred meters away from the waterfall!).

The hike then started another heavy ascent, taking us in parallel up all the way to the top of the waterfalls, where we stopped for a well-deserved lunch. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect spot to picnic, with those stunning views, with the roaring sound of the waterfalls underneath us…

Our appetites sated, we crossed the wild river (on a bridge!) that fed the Yosemite Falls (the huge warning signs warning people not to jump in the river seemed somewhat, erm, redundant somehow…), and continuing up to Yosemite Point, overlooking the valley. The view from there was, as you may have guessed, absolutely amazing.

We then hiked back the way we came, once more enjoying some pretty amazing views over the valley… Before making our way back to our hotel, we stopped to check out lower Yosemite falls (our hike had just shown us the top and middle sections of the waterfalls). That was one impressive waterfall, I’ll tell you that! (I believe Yosemite Falls is the 5th highest of its kind in the world, not hard to believe when you are there!). We were also treated to a wildlife sighting, as a coyote strolled past our car!

We were pretty shattered in the evening; having spent all day hiking, basically, but still had enough motivation for a bit more hiking the next day. This time, we decided to hike around glacier point, which is located on the other side of the Yosemite Valley from Yosemite Falls. Our first hike was to Sentinel Dome and Great Taft point. The walk up to sentinel dome took us a bit more than an hour of relatively easy hiking. The views from up there, towards Yosemite Falls, were naturally amazing. The famous El Capitan was also visible (one of the best places in the world for rock climbing, I hear…). What was really nice about the walk was actually the peace and quiet – there are much fewer hikers here, than in the valley.

From there, we walked through some pretty heavy pine forest towards Great Taft point, being quite surprised to find a fair bit of snow still lingering! The views from there over the valley were rather stunning, again. Once more, the peace and quiet made the exertion of the hike well worth it!

Having finished our hike, we made our way to Glacier Point, which is one of the most famous spots in Yosemite National Park, for good reason. The views over the valley from there are just stunning, no other word for it. All the major landmarks are visible from there, including El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, Nevada Falls… So again, a good spot to picnic!

From there, we decided to do another hike, this one taking us down to Illouette Falls. The beginning of the hike was quite pleasant and relaxing, following the edge of the valley, gradually descending towards the valley floor, until we got to the waterfalls. Unfortunately, the waterfalls are partially obscured during the entire walk, but it was still a very nice little hike to end the day with….

After one more night at Wawona hotel, it was time to leave the valley, sad as it felt… It’s certainly one of the most magical and beautiful places I’ve ever visited… I would gladly go back one day, we shall have to see!