Day 4 – March 13, 2019 (Wednesday)
The best adjective for today is adventurous. We began the morning learning the basics of
tire chains. As it turns out we didn’t
need them but it was stressful. The road
to get back to the Valley from our hotel said chains were required. So nick tried, with limited success, to put
them on. All the while, small sedans
were passing us. Finally a park ranger
explained to us that we had snow tires and that we’d be okay.
We drove down to the Yosemite Ski & Snowboard Area and
in addition to Grant being able to ski for 3 hours, we were able to purchase
traction control devices for our shoes, ensuring our hike tomorrow up the Upper
Fall. While Grant skied, Ryan and I
rented some snow shoes and hiked in the general direction of Summit
Meadow. I’m not sure if we reached it or
not but we took a short cut and got a nearly panoramic view of the
mountains.
Around 1pm we left the ski area and drove through the Valley
to the Half Dome Visitor parking area.
Due to another day of road closures, we had to park our car there and
walk ½ mile or so to the John Muir trail head that would take us to the Mist
Trail that would take us to Vernal Falls.
The hike was steep and stunning.
Just stunning views of Half Dome, Yosemite Fall, etc.
When we were within .3 miles of the falls,
the trail was closed!!! Argh! Now this just got added to our bucket list
because I pulled up a Google image and the falls are spectacular. We decided to put our crampons on and hike a
bit further towards Nevada Fall but it would have added 5 miles, round trip to
the hike and it was getting a little bit late.
We finally decided to turn around and while the hike was just simply
beautiful (and steep) we saw no waterfalls.
We finally got back to the car around 5 pm and we drove over
to the Majestic Yosemite Hotel (formerly known as the Ahwahnee Hotel) and
looked all around. The couple we’d met a
few days before said it’s $600 per night to stay there. They told us that the Queen of England had
even eaten there. The dining room was
just amazing.
After a quick stop by the Village store for candy bars for
the kids, we stopped and took the very short walk back to a close-up view of El
Capitan (not really much closer than the road) then went back to our
hotel. We got back at 6:45 and my Fit
Bit read 10.5 miles.
We heated up soup, ate “stove meals” again and the kids ran
down to the fire pit for some complementary s’mores. Right now it’s 8:30 (feels like midnight!)
and Nick and Grant are playing pool in the game room and Ryan’s taking a
bath. We’re going to go to bed soon so
that we can be at the trail head at 8 am tomorrow. It’s going to be the steepest hike we’ve ever
done – 3,000 ft of elevation change in 3 miles.
The hike’s supposed to take 8 hours so hopefully I have enough energy to
write about it tomorrow. It will
definitely be our Angel’s Landing moment.
I know Grant’s excited since he wasn’t able to finish Angel’s Landing. And we all have our traction control for our
shoes so we’re ready to go.
Tidbits: Grant is fried
(sun burned from skiing). Ryan is
semi-fried. Grant has a hot spot on his
foot already – yikes. Ryan lost her
sunglasses that were just a few days old.
Overall, everyone is getting along okay.
The stars here are surreal. Today
there wasn’t a single cloud in the very bright blue ski – very cold but
lovely. Why does California have to be
such a messed up state because its weather is glorious. We still haven’t gotten a picture in front of
the sign so we really need to do that tomorrow – I’m worried we’ll forget. And yes, this is officially my very favorite
national park.
Friday should be a half day hiking in the Hetch Hetchy area
then we’re going to relax at the resort the rest of the day. 34 national parks and #34 was/is the best.
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