Leon Turnbull Photography

How many bucket list waterfalls have I been to this year? One, two, three, four. All of them in Yosemite National Park: Eleanor Creek Falls, Ribbon Falls, Kendrick Falls, and … doo doo doo doo … bottom of Illilouette Falls. Four is quite a lot for one year, right? Obviously I’ve been on many other hikes, but I am talking about bucket lists, once in a lifetime hikes, at the top of my list.

I think I have probably mentioned before that I hate the new system in Yosemite where you need to get a day permit reservation in advance. That may work for some people but not me. I cannot plan months in advance when I am going to Yosemite on a certain random day in the future. I usually plan my hikes last minute. I don’t know what the weather is going to be like months in advance, or when I will be able to go on a certain hike, or even what hike I want to do until a few days before. They do release additional permits one week ahead of time, however, on Saturday I am usually hiking so I cannot log on to the computer and try and get a permit in the 10 minutes they are available before they all sell out. This past week, however, I was not doing anything on Saturday so I was actually able to log on and snag a day permit for the following weekend. Goodness gracious me.

I have often wondered why they say you need a permit at 5AM. It is so early! I could go in to the park before 5AM without a permit but that would mean I would have to drive to Yosemite Friday night and find a place to camp or sleep in my car. I don’t really like doing that too much. After 5AM you need to have that darn permit. I arrived at the gate at 5:55 AM. Permit in hand. The kiosk booth was not open! There was no one there! I suspect now that they do not even open until 6AM at the earliest. So why do they say 5AM? Next time I would not even need a permit. Would it be worth taking that chance? Hmmm.

There were a lot of people in the Valley. The Curry Village parking lot was completely full. The trailhead parking lot was almost full. It was only 6:30 AM! Holy crikey.

I got my stuff and headed up the trail. I thought the Ribbon Falls hike was very tough (it was). This hike was about three times as difficult. It is about the same length and about the same elevation gain, just a little more. But there is no trail! (unlike Ribbon). It is all off trail. There is brush. There are creek crossings. There is walking right up the creek bed. There is scrambling over huge boulders. There are a couple technical class three maneuvers to get over the huge rocks. It was at the limit of my skill level. It took 2 1/2 hours up and the same going back down. But I made it. The bottom of Illilouette Falls! I would not say it was spectacular but I would certainly say it was incredibly beautiful. (it would be spectacular at high flow but it’s not possible to do this in the spring). Bonus: I saw zero people. Everyone else was hiking the Mist Trail. It was a fantastic morning in Yosemite National Park.

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