Leon Turnbull Photography

(Philippians 1:21)

I mentioned that I saw a number of waterfalls on the Merced River. Some of these are marked waterfalls. At least one of those marked waterfalls is not even 20 ft. high, and should not even be called a waterfall. There are others, however, that are not marked, and some of those are well over 20 ft. high. Nothing huge, but definitely waterfall worthy. Why are they not considered waterfalls by the National Park Service? Some of these unmarked falls are out of reach, some were not very photogenic, and some were in horrible harsh light so I did not take any photos. This one, though, I thought was a really good one, and I was able to get to it in the morning when the light was still good. It is about 30 ft. high, and is a powerful little thing. It was so misty at the base of the falls that it was practically impossible to take photos. Nonetheless, I did take a photo of it.

After photographing the falls, I ate my breakfast here. I did not doddle. I had a long hike ahead of me. It was going to be a 21+ mile hike back to the Happy Isles trailhead. It would be a very long day. I was going to die.

I am not positive but I do not think I’ve ever hiked 21 miles in a day before (though I’ve come close). I was certain, though, that I could hike that distance today because it was all downhill. No problem. It was not quite “all” downhill, however. There was one uphill section that I knew about beforehand and I was mentally prepared for it – about 100 ft. in elevation gain after passing through Echo Valley. However, there were a number of other “little” up hills that I definitely did not remember seeing on the way up. These ones killed me. I was not ready for them. They should not be there. It is supposed to be all downhill hiking. The two worst sections were just before the top of Nevada Falls, and then right at the end of the hike below Vernal Falls. I almost died. Literally.

I thought I made very good time to the top of Nevada Falls. After this point, the hike is excruciatingly slow going. There are two reasons: One, there are hundreds of people on the trail. There are many narrow spots where you must go in single file, so you need to wait for the people coming up the trail before you can proceed. Also, it is not always easy to pass slow people going down. You need to wait for a wide enough place, or hope they step aside so you can pass them. I always try to descend from Nevada Falls as fast as I can, even though I am very tired by this point. This brings us to the second reason: the terrain is very steep, rocky, and with many awful steps cut into the rock. It is awfully slow going down. It just takes a very long time.

I finally got back to the car beat tired. It was 3PM. Not too bad, overall, for a 21 mile hike. I started at 5:30AM. It took more than one full hour to exit Yosemite Valley. The traffic was totally ridiculous. They did something to the roads in the Valley, re-routing or re-arranging them. I swear they made things 1000 times worse than they were before. What genius decided this? It has never been so slow driving around Yosemite Valley.  Even last year, though it was horribly busy, it was not as bad as this year. It is just so stupid now. It does not make me want to ever go back to Yosemite (but of course, I will).

I finally got to Groveland and stopped at Pizza Factory as I always do after my Yosemite hikes. I was absolutely starving. Bless the Lord, they were not busy. I ate my fill of pizza and garlic bread, and then made the long drive back home. I may have almost died on the long hike back, but it was worth everything. It was a great few days in the Yosemite Wilderness.