14th June, Saturday – Yosemite National Park
Day 15
Our first day into Yosemite National Park! Our hostel is a 1 hour shuttle bus ride into Yosemite Valley, so we had to wake up a little earlier to get in.. =P
The weather on this trip has been crazy so far – the weather reports I checked out while in Baltimore predicted temperatures of up to 20 degrees Celsius for daytime in Yosemite, while night time temperatures plunge to the low 10s and single digits some time.. Well, it is definitely cold at night – the tent cabin had as much insulation as a piece of paper, and I woke up like a popsicle.. However, once the sun comes up, it can get quite hot, up to 30 degrees Celsius and higher even! Phew. Talk about extremes of temperatures.
Geared for a day of walking – I mean, it’s a National Park isn’t it? So there’s bound to be some amount of trekking.. We decided to take a shuttle bus up to Glacier Point for a panoramic view of Yosemite Valley, before hiking down the panoramic route of 13.7km.. -_-“
Yosemite Falls in Yosemite Park!
The shuttle bus up was pretty uneventful – had a really chirpy bus driver who told us about the history of Yosemite. Yosemite was initially known as Ahwahnee, and was occupied by the native American Indians. They later left the valley and stayed with another tribe for many years, before the chief of the tribe, Chief Tenaya, decided that he would bring his tribe back to Ahwahnee, which he did.
When they got back to Ahwahnee, he decided to give a new name to the place, after the grizzly bear, which was pronounced “Yo-se-mar-ti” or something like that from my recall. And yes, so the White man pronounced it Yosemite, and we have Yosemite today. =)
But peaceful times didn’t last long for the tribe, the White men came in, and forcefully removed the tribe from Yosemite under the excuse that they were making trouble. They eventually were able to return to the Valley with the help of a kind doctor, who named many of the features in Yosemite after Chief Tenaya as a tribute to him – Tenaya Creek, Tenaya Lake…
Anyway, yeah, so we took the bus up to Glacier Point, where we overlooked the whole of Yosemite Valley (which is only a small % of Yosemite National Park itself – more than 95% of the park is uninhabited wildlife land!) =)
View of Yosemite Valley from the top of Glacier Point!
View from top of Glacier Point! Here, you can catch the half-dome rock on the right of the picture, with Tenaya Valley to its left.. They postulated that the glaciers moved downwards on both sides of the Half-Dome..
And here's a pic of the other side of the Half-Dome..
Ricardo & me! =)
And started our 5 hour 13.7km hike down the mountainside…
Beautiful views of Yosemite!
Of BridalVeil Falls…
There’s also a story behind bridal veil falls – the falls would vary in size and direction frequently throughout the year, a combination of factors such as melting snow and the wind directions, and hence, the natives thought that there was a spirit at work, and that if you went near and breathed in the spray, the spirit would kill you. When White men came and explored the valley, the name BridalVeil falls was given, as it looked long and lacy, well, like a bridal veil!
Other geologic highlights:
El Capitan – the world’s largest granite outcrop..
Illiouete falls..
The Panoramic route connected to the top of the Nevada Falls and the Vernal Falls and Mist Trail (which is only open during summer), so we decided to explore those!
Nevada Falls, which leads to Vernal Falls and the Mist Trail!
And yes, the mist trail lives up to its name – you do certainly get wet! I had initially thought that this was the only mist we were getting.. But the path below wound closer to the Vernal Falls! And the mist and spray from the Vernal Falls is fantastic!
And you can even see rainbows!
Quiz: How many rainbows can you see in this picture?
Spectacular isn’t it?
The hike pretty much took up the rest of the day, and it was back to the hostel for some much needed R&R for tomorrow, another day of walking! Was kinda looking forward to our new accommodations in the hostel – cos we had booked hostel dorms for the next 2 nights instead of the tent cabin from last night, and the hostel dorms had heating, so hopefully I won’t wake up feeling like a popsicle.. O_O
Our first day into Yosemite National Park! Our hostel is a 1 hour shuttle bus ride into Yosemite Valley, so we had to wake up a little earlier to get in.. =P
The weather on this trip has been crazy so far – the weather reports I checked out while in Baltimore predicted temperatures of up to 20 degrees Celsius for daytime in Yosemite, while night time temperatures plunge to the low 10s and single digits some time.. Well, it is definitely cold at night – the tent cabin had as much insulation as a piece of paper, and I woke up like a popsicle.. However, once the sun comes up, it can get quite hot, up to 30 degrees Celsius and higher even! Phew. Talk about extremes of temperatures.
Geared for a day of walking – I mean, it’s a National Park isn’t it? So there’s bound to be some amount of trekking.. We decided to take a shuttle bus up to Glacier Point for a panoramic view of Yosemite Valley, before hiking down the panoramic route of 13.7km.. -_-“
Yosemite Falls in Yosemite Park!
The shuttle bus up was pretty uneventful – had a really chirpy bus driver who told us about the history of Yosemite. Yosemite was initially known as Ahwahnee, and was occupied by the native American Indians. They later left the valley and stayed with another tribe for many years, before the chief of the tribe, Chief Tenaya, decided that he would bring his tribe back to Ahwahnee, which he did.
When they got back to Ahwahnee, he decided to give a new name to the place, after the grizzly bear, which was pronounced “Yo-se-mar-ti” or something like that from my recall. And yes, so the White man pronounced it Yosemite, and we have Yosemite today. =)
But peaceful times didn’t last long for the tribe, the White men came in, and forcefully removed the tribe from Yosemite under the excuse that they were making trouble. They eventually were able to return to the Valley with the help of a kind doctor, who named many of the features in Yosemite after Chief Tenaya as a tribute to him – Tenaya Creek, Tenaya Lake…
Anyway, yeah, so we took the bus up to Glacier Point, where we overlooked the whole of Yosemite Valley (which is only a small % of Yosemite National Park itself – more than 95% of the park is uninhabited wildlife land!) =)
View of Yosemite Valley from the top of Glacier Point!
View from top of Glacier Point! Here, you can catch the half-dome rock on the right of the picture, with Tenaya Valley to its left.. They postulated that the glaciers moved downwards on both sides of the Half-Dome..
And here's a pic of the other side of the Half-Dome..
Ricardo & me! =)
And started our 5 hour 13.7km hike down the mountainside…
Beautiful views of Yosemite!
Of BridalVeil Falls…
There’s also a story behind bridal veil falls – the falls would vary in size and direction frequently throughout the year, a combination of factors such as melting snow and the wind directions, and hence, the natives thought that there was a spirit at work, and that if you went near and breathed in the spray, the spirit would kill you. When White men came and explored the valley, the name BridalVeil falls was given, as it looked long and lacy, well, like a bridal veil!
Other geologic highlights:
El Capitan – the world’s largest granite outcrop..
Illiouete falls..
The Panoramic route connected to the top of the Nevada Falls and the Vernal Falls and Mist Trail (which is only open during summer), so we decided to explore those!
Nevada Falls, which leads to Vernal Falls and the Mist Trail!
And yes, the mist trail lives up to its name – you do certainly get wet! I had initially thought that this was the only mist we were getting.. But the path below wound closer to the Vernal Falls! And the mist and spray from the Vernal Falls is fantastic!
And you can even see rainbows!
Quiz: How many rainbows can you see in this picture?
Spectacular isn’t it?
The hike pretty much took up the rest of the day, and it was back to the hostel for some much needed R&R for tomorrow, another day of walking! Was kinda looking forward to our new accommodations in the hostel – cos we had booked hostel dorms for the next 2 nights instead of the tent cabin from last night, and the hostel dorms had heating, so hopefully I won’t wake up feeling like a popsicle.. O_O
penned in the diary of memories by Alvin at
8:51 PM
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