We picked Megan up from San Francisco airport on her arrival back in the US and drove West to Yosemite, only stopping for a quick look in Costco and to buy some groceries on the way. We arrived late that afternoon and checked in to our accommodation…a yurt. This is a big circular, wood framed tarp tent. It’s got wooden flooring and electricity, kind of one step below a cabin.

After dumping our belongings we drove down into Yosemite Valley and took in as many sights from the road as we could in the cloudy evening. Fleeting glimpses of Half Dome and cloud capped El Capitan mixed with the thunder of Bridalveil Falls and Yosemite Falls. The area has had serious amounts of rain in the last week, coupled with the ice melt from the mountains means that the waterfalls are raging at the moment. Seriously impressive!

The next morning we rose from our yurt to head into the park. After chatting with the parks office we chose Yosemite Falls as our first ascent of the trip. Cool temps and clouds made for great hiking conditions as we climbed the 2700ft from the trailhead to the top of the falls. The base of the falls sounded like a continuous rock slide with the monstrous drop of heaving water onto the rocks and into the pool below. Megan and I then continued out another couple of miles to Yosemite Point and back. It was cold at the top with tiny little snowflakes falling and then drizzling rain a little lower down so we ate on the go and began our descent. The whole hike took us pretty much exactly 4hrs for 10.2 miles and 3300ft elevation gain.

The next day we left camp a little earlier and headed into the park to hike Vernal and Nevada Falls, said to be one of the best hikes in the park. The drive in showed mostly clear skies with only some fluffy white clouds drifting lazily across the distant mountains, nothing to hint at rain for the day so with the sunshine and high spirits we began the 6.2 miles, 1900ft elevation gain hike. We went in clockwise, following the Mist Trail to the top of the falls and then down the John Muir Trail back to the valley floor. Hiking up, the trail steps along the cliff, coming closer and closer to the end of the valley where the falls rage over the edge. The swirling wind and heavy falls create a continuous solid mist hanging in the air, almost raining down on you as you take in the views of the Vernal Waterfall ahead and then the opening valley and stunningly vivid greenery behind.

Continuing up past Vernal we hit the top of Nevada falls a little while later, enjoying the vast clear view over the falls and into the valley. Stopping for some photos and a couple of delicious mandarins, we began the descent and were back to the bottom a little under three hours after beginning. We stretched in the sun after our running descent and then had some lunch sitting on the grass. What a beautiful day.

Mat wasn’t feeling too great, coming down with the man flu but he pushed on and we drove out of the valley to Tuolumne Grove, a short walk (2 miles) through some Giant Sequoia. As the heat of the day waned we strolled along a winding path through these massive trees, some of them which grow up to a few hundred feet tall and 30ft wide at the base. Yay for another amazing day in Yosemite.

On the third full day in Yosemite everyone was feeling a bit stiff and sorry for themselves but committed to hike down from Glacier Point to Illilouette Falls and around to Panorama Point. Glacier Point is one of the must see vantage points in the valley. You can either hike to it from the valley floor or drive to it. One of the trails down, the Four Mile Trail was closed and the other option, the Panorama Trail links up with the hike we’d done the previous day so we decided to do halfway down, almost you the top of Nevada falls and then back up. The views from Glacier Point face across the valley at Yosemite Falls, El Capitan, Half Dome and Nevada and Vernal Falls. Just above the Glacier Point lookout was covered in snow, sitting at 2199m. It’s surprising because as soon as you start to descend into the valley, no more than a few hundred meters along the trail, it is dry and dusty and almost arid.

The scrub and bushes are completely different from the other side of the valley we had hiked the last few days. The views though did not disappoint. We hadn’t seen any vantage of Half Dome to rival what we now saw and it only got better as we neared Panorama Point. The descent into the bottom of the valley to Illilouette Falls was 400m and then we rose again on the next valley another 240m to walk around to Panorama Point. Once we had an easy lunch at Panorama Point, we returned to Glacier Point for a round trip of 8miles. We had a quick look at the Sentinel Dome hike on the drive out but it was snow packed so we decided to keep driving down to Tunnel View for some photos and then back into the valley. Megan and I did a quick loop of the bottom of Lower Yosemite Falls as Mat and Michelle grabbed a hot chocolate.

After that it was off homeward to collect some pine cones and wood for a fire and to crank the bbq on our last night.