Yosemite waterfalls weekend
Last week was really busy at work, but I had a couple of nice evenings out: firstly with friends from volunteering days on Tuesday at an Indian restaurant in the Tenderloin, which turned out to be rather good! The second meal out was with someone we know from university days, who was en route back to the UK with his wife after living in New Zealand for two years. Then on Friday, I went into school to volunteer, but found they were having a party in honour of me and another volunteer who helps them! There was a huge chocolate cake with our names written on it and a lovely bunch of roses was presented.
Having made it to the end of the week, Jon and I set off for the long drive to Yosemite for a weekend getaway. We stayed overnight at Groveland, the last real community before the park entrance, which is still an hour outside the valley. Next day we headed into the park and went up to Glacier Point. A road takes you all the way to the point, some 3,500 feet above the valley floor. In all the times we’ve visited Yosemite, we’d never been up on this road. Well, the views were stupendous, second only to those from Cloud’s Rest, I’d say (which involves a 14 mile hike from the Tioga Road). There were loads of people, of course, but you can’t take away the gorgeousness of those vistas. We did a short hike (5 miles) from a spot a few miles down from Glacier Point to Sentinel Dome and Taft Point. There were still patches of snow here and there, so it felt very odd wandering around in T-shirts and vests, crunching over the white stuff. We were lucky enough to see a marmot posing in the sunshine along the way.
We spent Saturday night in Curry Village, the budget accommodation option in the valley. I’d booked us a canvas tent cabin. It had its own bear box outside, but we didn’t see any bears, alas (just a few chipmunks scurrying around). We had a relaxing pre-dinner drink, watching a deer graze its way across a patch of grass in front of us, then a mediocre meal before settling down to listen to the ranger talk on search and rescue missions. We both had some trouble sleeping that night, as the temperature dropped down very low – probably to about 5 degrees.
The next day, we decided to tackle a big hike, so climbed to the top of Yosemite Falls. The Falls shoot down in two hugely impressive cascades, with a less vertical middle section, from a height of some 2,425 feet, making it the highest waterfall in North America and the sixth highest in the world. It was a fairly strenuous hike. We still hadn’t had enough when we reached the top, though, so meandered through the high country for another mile to Yosemite Point. It was not a hike for anyone suffering from vertigo! We managed to catch a bit of sunshine (we both have a few pink patches, but nothing too serious) and returned – not without first getting a huge feed at a diner in Oakdale – to a decidedly summery San Francisco.
Photos available here: http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/yosemite-waterfalls-etc/
Having made it to the end of the week, Jon and I set off for the long drive to Yosemite for a weekend getaway. We stayed overnight at Groveland, the last real community before the park entrance, which is still an hour outside the valley. Next day we headed into the park and went up to Glacier Point. A road takes you all the way to the point, some 3,500 feet above the valley floor. In all the times we’ve visited Yosemite, we’d never been up on this road. Well, the views were stupendous, second only to those from Cloud’s Rest, I’d say (which involves a 14 mile hike from the Tioga Road). There were loads of people, of course, but you can’t take away the gorgeousness of those vistas. We did a short hike (5 miles) from a spot a few miles down from Glacier Point to Sentinel Dome and Taft Point. There were still patches of snow here and there, so it felt very odd wandering around in T-shirts and vests, crunching over the white stuff. We were lucky enough to see a marmot posing in the sunshine along the way.
We spent Saturday night in Curry Village, the budget accommodation option in the valley. I’d booked us a canvas tent cabin. It had its own bear box outside, but we didn’t see any bears, alas (just a few chipmunks scurrying around). We had a relaxing pre-dinner drink, watching a deer graze its way across a patch of grass in front of us, then a mediocre meal before settling down to listen to the ranger talk on search and rescue missions. We both had some trouble sleeping that night, as the temperature dropped down very low – probably to about 5 degrees.
The next day, we decided to tackle a big hike, so climbed to the top of Yosemite Falls. The Falls shoot down in two hugely impressive cascades, with a less vertical middle section, from a height of some 2,425 feet, making it the highest waterfall in North America and the sixth highest in the world. It was a fairly strenuous hike. We still hadn’t had enough when we reached the top, though, so meandered through the high country for another mile to Yosemite Point. It was not a hike for anyone suffering from vertigo! We managed to catch a bit of sunshine (we both have a few pink patches, but nothing too serious) and returned – not without first getting a huge feed at a diner in Oakdale – to a decidedly summery San Francisco.
Photos available here: http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/yosemite-waterfalls-etc/
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