We arrived at Yosemite National Park in the mid afternoon, giving us enough time to secure our campsite, stroll around and explore the village and have a beer. As Yosemite Valley itself is at around 4,000 feet, it was a lot colder than the mild, almost summery conditions we had been previously experiencing. We pulled on our woolies, got our bearings and planned some hikes for the following two days.

We woke up the next day after a bit of a sleep in and rushed off to do our first hike, an 8 mile round trip that take you up to the top of Yosemite Falls. Described as strenuous in our hiking brochure, the estimated timeframe for the hike was 6-8 hours. We were a little bit concerned about this, as we fluffed around a bit and didn’t begin the actual hike until 11am (I needed a coffee, having had a few too many wines the night before with some new friends) Nevertheless, with our hiking boots on and our gore-tex’s in our back packs and with plenty of water and snacks, we headed off.

The weather at this point was looking promising, some low clouds but only drizzling lightly. We had gone probably a few metres up the first section of the trail when we ran into a couple that just raved about the view up there, so we were getting excited. The next person we met had only made it about half way up, as his attire wasn’t quite warm enough for the snow that he had encountered. We were a bit concerned by this news. He was only wearing shorts and sneakers but he was a marine, so surely he’d be tough. He did, however, give us 4 beers (Coors light though…) as he wasn’t going to be able to drink them at the top and thought we might like them. As you know, we never say no to beer.

We kept running into the same couple, who it turned out had been coming to Yosemite every year on their anniversary (this year their 22^nd) and annual climb to the Upper Falls. The lady was so super upbeat, I could hear her the whole way up saying ‘isn’t this fun?’, even though we’d be slipping on rocks in the rain, and then later, snow.

There were some amazing vantage points on the way up, of the lower falls and then the upper falls as we got further up. There was a brief moment when it stopped raining and there was a small area of blue sky but that quickly clouded over and soon enough it was snowing.

It's a bit cold!

I found something out about myself. I really love oranges. I don’t think I was much of an orange eater growing up, considering Zane had to show me how to peel my orange and then actually peel it for me because it was just all too hard and my hands were cold. So we were about 2 miles into the hike and I was hungry and thirsty all at the same time and I had this orange and it was just about the best thing I’ve ever eaten.

So about three hours off huffing and puffing (on my part only. Zane ‘Bear Grylls’ Bewg seemed to be a mountain goat, nimbly hopping from rock to rock) we were at the summit and on the verge of experiencing one of the most breathtaking vistas in America, from the top of majestic Yosemite Falls, almost 8,000 feet above the Valley, opposite from huge Half Dome. At this stage there was around 6cms of snow on the trail and my fingers were tingling from the early stages hypothermia but we stepped down the last few granite steps, prepared ourselves for the awesomeness that awaited, stepped around the last rock wall blocking us from the epic view… and were met by a slam of water and snow in the face. I couldn’t even open my eyes, so strong was the force of the snow and water blowing off the falls. We stayed out there for around a second before retreating. Zane stuck his hand out to take a photo of the falls and really captured the essence of our experience.

And here is what we should have seen, had the day been a bit better.

The walk down was a bit scary as the snow had made the rocks invisible and slippery. We made it down with only a few close calls and no falls. To our amazement we had made the trek in only 5 hours, much faster than the predicted time, so we must be damn good hikers! Either that or the predicted time factors in a bit longer up at the top to admire the view/get a face full of water and snow.

It was a nice hike though, and I‘m glad we did it, it’s just a shame the weather was so crap. I suggested we could stay a day later and do the hike again when the weather improved but Zane didn’t seem too keen on the idea.

So we made it down and back to the campsite and it was about 2 degrees and we were wet and cold and tired so we just had a shower, got a pizza and had an early night.

The next day we woke up to sunny skies, perfect for our second hike, the mist trail up to the top of Vernal Falls. This was only a 3 mile hike and we gained only around 1,000 feet but the last half a mile was made up of 668 granite steps (I counted). It was a beautiful view from the top.

Vernal Falls

The weather was a bit different to the day before!

Since Yosemite we’ve just driven West, back to the Coast and then South, towards LA. As I type this, Zane is experiencing the joy of LA driving. We are hoping to spend tonight in Venice Beach and see some of the LA sights tomorrow. Look out Rodeo Drive, here we come... to window shop.

Much California love,
Z and T