Hiking with a Hubris

 When we were in Kings Canyon, we spoke to a couple about our next stop: Yosemite National Park. They said that Yosemite was by far their favorite park and suggested that we do two things. 1) Get reservations for the Green Dragon open cabin tour and 2) Rent bikes to ride around the valley loop. Naturally we did neither, but their recommendations did not fall on completely deaf ears. 

Reservations were out the window for the time crunch we were working with and there was no way we were going to pay for a bike when we can hike. So, instead we aimed to hike the Yosemite Valley loop trail. This should have been a somewhat easy, mostly flat 12 mile hike, circling the valley to hit all of the most iconic views. But that would be our hubris talking. 

Our first mistake was planning to wake up at 4am.

This made sense at the time since we were expecting it would be pretty difficult to find a place to park. The evening prior we had tried to enter the park to take a look around, but it was so busy that we couldn't find a parking spot. Since it was the end of the day we decided to just head out to our campground (outside the park), but the roads were so busy (and we drove an hour and a half in the wrong direction) that when we finally arrived to our campsite we were dog tired.

After hitting snooze a couple of times, we easily found a place to park by 6 am. And as we were still pretty tired, we bought some coffe at the Seven Tent coffee shop. Without any breakfast and a lot of audacity, we set out for our first destination, Mirror Lake. This was the first mile and a half of what turned out to be a very long journey. 

The lake is actually almost completely dry during the spring and summer, but we still decided to include it to do the full loop. Once we go there though, there was some heavy confusion on where the path went. There were several interconnected paths where the lake normally sits and once we took one in, we couldn't find a way around the lake. So, we decided to completely backtrack, and try to go around the other side to continue on the loop. But, the path did not continue that way. We had to backtrack once more to the nearest shuttle stop to try again. 

Once we were confident we were in the right path (and ran into the same people who saw us back track a couple times) it was smooth sailing for a couple of miles. Then, we were supposed to go around the Yosemite Valley Lodge house but again got a bit confused on the exact direction. We found some signs and got back on track on our way to see the Lower Yosemite Falls. After seeing some water falls at the last couple parks, we can say that in our expert opinion that this was a 'grade A' waterfall! 

Then, we had a long stretch between any specific sights, but anytime we looked up there was a new beautiful view waiting for us. We continued on for the next 5 miles, walking along the river, through flowered fields and gazing up at canyon walls. Although gorgeous, this was a very labourus portion of the trail since it was the least traveled and every couple hundred feet it was a toss up in which direction the trail went in, and plenty of bushwhacking was involved. 

We finally reached Brideveil Falls, another spectacular waterfall, where we finally stopped for breakfast/lunch (at 1:30 pm!). After that was our final 4 mile trek back to our car. We estimated that with all the backtracking and getting lost, our hike was a lot closer to 15 miles, but it was enjoyable all the way. 

The next day we spent in Yosemite as a catch up day. We weren't able to stop at the visitor center yet so we did that, checked out the gift shop, and got more coffee. The most important things we did were use the free wi-fi and outlets to look at the many pictures we had taken on our digital camera (donated to us by our kind Grandpa) and check our scheduling. We realized that we had a gap in campsites and needed one fast! 

The best option we found was closer to our next park, so we got some gas and hit the road once more. 

Despite some over confidence we had a great time! One month in to our road trip we learned that we actually didn't run out of things to say to each other! We have just been so busy huffing and puffing up hills that we have been too tired to talk! Put us on some flat ground and we'll yap your ear off. Also, we learned that although we aren't that good at following trails, we are pretty good at getting un-lost, even if that means going the extra mile or two (literally). And maybe, just maybe, we learned that 15 miles is stretching it for us. But hey, ambition has never killed anyone!