Yosemite Falls

The first Saturday of June Zonda watched the babies while Ryan and I went to Yosemite NP for a day hike. We hiked to Yosemite Falls, the largest waterfall in North America, which was just gushing from all the late snow melt. Even though it was a rainy, cool day, Yosemite was still soooooo crowded. I thought Rocky Mountain NP was commercial and crowded, but Yosemite takes the cake.

On the bus from the parking lot to our trialhead

At the trailhead

About a mile in

View of the upper falls from the level of the lower falls

Just after the long steep section

At the top of the Upper Falls. Just behind me is a 1400 foot drop.

We hiked first to Yosemite Point and then back down to the Upper Falls. On the way to the Point, we ran into snow...in JUNE. It's a 'cold' year, but still.

Yosemite Point - that's about a 3000 ft drop behind Ryan, who is holding onto a rather rickety railing and looking nervous about doing so.

Ever wondered what 3000 ft straight down looks like?

What Yosemite Point looks like from the Upper Falls viewing area (that's the edge where Ryan'd been standing in the previous picture).

This is a lot scarier than you can tell from the picture.

I wish I had taken more pictures of this turn. This is the descent to the viewing area. You hold onto a railing on the left, and there's a giant boulder on your right. It's very narrow. The boulder bends, and all you see is that the railing stops. It looks like you walk out into nothing. You just have to go all the way around before you see that there is a railing attached to the rock on the right after the turn. The path is too narrow to continue the railing on the left. It was mentally terrifying; I kind of panicked, but on we pushed.

I think my dad would hate this picture (he and heights aren't the best of friends).

This is that blind turn on the way back up. You can see how narrow and skinny the path is.

The trail is so heavily used and steep that much of it is made out of rock. I don't know if you can tell how steep it is, but it made the way out almost as slow going as the way in.

This is Bridlewood Falls, which we saw while driving out of the park. Seriously, every picture in this park looks like a postcard.

This was one of the harder hikes that we've been able to do in a while and was only made possible by Zonda watching the kids for a full day. Thank you so much for that, Zonda! We had so much fun! I just love being outdoors with my husband.