Leon Turnbull Photography

(FYI, the title is from a Jars of Clay album)

I reserved my wilderness permit for Yosemite 6 months earlier. It is just a bit difficult to know 6 months in advance what the snow pack and weather are going to be like, but that is the way of it in Yosemite. If you want to get a permit for Yosemite National Park, this is what you need to do. You can always try to get a walk up permit, but do you really want to drive 300 miles and take a chance that you may or may not be able to get a permit? Some may not mind doing this, but it is not for me.

Assuming we would have an average snow pack, I reserved June 7-9, which seemed like a good time to do this hike. However, of course, we had a below average snow year. The snow is still melting in the mountains, though, and the rivers are still very high, thanks to the “miracle” March (and God). Nonetheless, ideally, I would have liked to do this hike 2 or 3 weeks earlier, mostly because the mosquitoes would be out by early June this year. I was hoping they would not be a big problem (yet). The weather was looking good. There was a delta breeze and the weather was on the cool side (not too hot); hopefully there would be a breeze in the mountains to keep the skeeters at bay, at least a little bit. All in all, June 7-9 was looking like a good weekend for a backpacking trip in Yosemite. I did good reserving 6 months in advance.

I arrived in Yosemite the day before my scheduled hike, picked up my permit, got my campsite (outside the park), and got my dinner in Groveland. I would get a very early start the next morning. I spent the evening at Rainbow Pool, watching a bunch of kids jump off the cliff. There were even some kids less than 10 years old jumping. I sure would not have let my kids jump off that cliff at such an early age! The cliff is about 30 feet high. The river is strong, and there could be an undertow at the falls. Some of the kids were jumping directly into the waterfall base, I don’t know, it seemed a bit dangerous to me, but I did not witness any casualties. After I had seen enough of this, I went down to the lower falls. It amazes me that there are so many people at Rainbow Pool, but no one ever goes down to the lower falls, which is hundreds of times better. It was early and I thought it would still be in the sun, so I did not even bring my camera. As it turned out, the falls were already in the shade. I should have brought it after all. Well, I just took some iPhone pics instead, and relaxed. It was a nice evening.

The next morning, I got to the Happy Isles trailhead at sunrise to begin my big hike. The zoo had already begun! There were already lots of people on the trail. This early! On a weekday! I could not believe it. I was hoping to be alone or mostly alone on the trail this morning. I was not expecting to see so many people this early. Who hikes this early? Besides me? I was upset. I think most of them were hiking Half Dome. It makes sense you would want an early start for that hike. If I had thought about that, I could have started my hike 30 minutes or more earlier than I did. Ugh.

One thing I wanted to do which I have not done before, is to approach Nevada Falls from the other side. I have only seen one other photo of Nevada from this side before. Everyone goes to Nevada on the trail. No ones goes off trail to Nevada Falls on the south side. It must be unbelievably difficult to get up to Nevada on the other side. Surely. Horrible. Well, it took awhile, but I managed to get up to Nevada Falls. It was amazing. It was also incredibly misty. How was I going to photograph this beast? It was wet everywhere. I found one spot that was not too bad, and took a few photos. Then I enjoyed the mist and experience of this incredible waterfall from up close before heading back down to the trail proper. As I was getting ready to leave, I dropped my camera. It landed directly on a rock. The lens hit the rock first. Oh damn. I thought it was done for. I would have to just go on back home. What would be the point of backpacking up to awesome waterfalls if I could not take any photos? Thankfully (and praise God), only the side of the lens hit the rock. Part of the side broke off, but the lens itself was untouched, and I managed to re-attach the side piece even though part of it was broken. The camera was still in perfect functioning order. Whew!

Back on the main trail, eventually I left the zoo and all the other hikers behind me, once I got past Little Yosemite Valley. I was alone, finally, just the way I like it. I saw a couple other backpackers coming down the trail, and I saw a few campers at Merced Lake, but above Merced Lake, I saw absolutely NO ONE for the entire weekend. It was fantastic. It was perfect. Actually, I was not expecting that. This is YOSEMITE after all.

I had hopes of hiking a lot further up the valley than I ended up actually hiking on the first day. It is a very tough 12 miles and 3000 ft. elevation gain to Echo Valley. I was beat. I was dead tired. I had to stop. I must stop. But where can I stop? In Echo Valley, there would be mosquitoes everywhere. (and there was). I continued on and came to Silverlace Falls. I found a nice spot at the top of the waterfall. It was open, there was a nice breeze, and there were no mosquitoes. I setup camp here, had dinner, then went to photograph some falls in the evening, including Silverlace. Day one was in the books.