On the second day we decided to pay Glacier Point a visit. There are two ways to get there: the easy way or the not-so-easy way. The easy way is by shuttle. The park offers a fee-based tour to Glacier Point every day. You can either buy a one-way trip and hike down to the valley or do a round-trip. Tickets can be bought at any tourist station. The not-so-easy way is by foot/hiking. The trail is called the Four Mile Trail, although the actual distance is closer to five miles (4.8 to be exact). The distance itself is not the problem, but the elevation gain makes the hike quite strenuous.
Here's the poster for the hike. 3,200 feet of elevation gain!!!
At first, I wanted to do the whole hike. A good challenge, right? But then I had a reality check. Do I really want to be hiking for that long up such a steep trail? I was still pretty exhausted from the hike the day before... So we decided to take the shuttle up and hike down instead. A one-way trip of the tour is $25 per person. Let me tell you, it was definitely a good decision. During the drive from the valley floor up to Glacier Point, we learned the history of Yosemite from our guide on the bus. It simply was fascinating! I haven't been on a tour in so long--and the last time that I had been I was too young to reap all the value a good guide could offer--that I had forgotten the wealth of knowledge you could learn from the experience. Did you know Yosemite was named after a revered Native American tribe that had originally lived in the area? It's not even really pronounced the way it's pronounced today. Then there was the myth behind Bridalveil Falls, and so on. I feel that whenever we travel to a certain place, we usually get distracted by the sights and sounds, forgetting about the intimate relationship between its history and its present. When we go about taking photographs, buying souvenirs, and doing the usual tourist bit everyone does, we enjoy ourselves. But we miss a chance to indulge in the deeper connection without seeing past the facade of normalcy painted for the nomad visitors. (And that will be all for my philosophical musing of the day, hahaha!) Did I mention the view was just gorgeous?
I can't believe I was there!
Here is a placard to identify what you're looking at. Compare with the picture of the view below.
Pretty cool how the view fits with the placard.
Half Dome in the background. It was also such a nice day.
The start of the trail.
In the first five minutes of hiking, we came across two young European women hiking up from the valley floor. Out of curiosity, we asked how long it took them to hike up. Either they had absolutely no sense of time or were just beastly fit, they said, "Oh, around two hours." O_O And they added, "You can probably get down in forty minutes." It took us an hour and a half to get all the way down, and we were going pretty fast considering it's all downhill. If they really made it up in two hours, they would have been moving up a steep trail pretty darn fast. The thing is they didn't even look tired when they passed us. So I came to the conclusion that they must live on a mountain where they are used to higher altitudes and trail run everyday, or something of that nature.
That could possibly be where we parked our car way down below.
Part of the trail and this beautiful mountain/rock formation.
Seriously, I'm looking through the pictures now, and let me say this: the pictures do the beauty that I saw no justice. Not in the slightest bit. The mountain/rock formation above, I got Tony to take a picture of because I thought it was one of the most awe inspiring scenes I've ever seen. But man, look at that picture. It's just a trail and some mountain. You really have to be there to experience the magnificence of it all.
Just look at that. What a view!
A sign at the valley floor not too far from the shuttle stop.
I gotta say though, it was a smart decision for us to take the tour up. My feet were essentially useless when we were done. So, of course, we took a dip in the pool and showered!
The pool was pretty crowded, and the water was pretty gross. Despite that, it was a nice little dip.
After that, we had some time to spare before the theater showing of the day, which was on search and rescue. So we walked around exploring the area.
There was a reconstructed Indian Village by the theater that we walked through.
This was a display by the Yosemite Museum.
That night, we also went stargazing and it was amazing! You could see the milky way and all. There were also a bunch of shooting stars! I saw a huge one race across the sky and that made my night.
We started our first day with a 6.3 miles round trip hike to Vernal and Nevada Falls. The trail starts at Happy Isles and continues on the Mist Trail to Vernal Fall then Nevada Fall. After that, there is an option to return via the Mist Trail again by Clark Point. We opted to return via the John Muir Trail, which is why the mileage is more than the poster's below.
Here's a visual info of the hike. The start of the trail is at Happy Isles, the bottom left corner of this poster.
Here's a closeup of the trail from the footbridge. Take note of the amount of water flowing down the waterfalls in this depiction.
The beginning of the hike was fairly easy, no real great climb. But then the trail starts getting steep and you hit the stairs, and I was starting to pant.
You know, the Mist Trail was so named because of the thick mist from the waterfall blanketing the trail and soaking hikers. There is so little water this year that the whole trail was dry.
The super dry stairways. It actually would get slippery and people have fallen down the steep slope to the left before.
Them mountain squirrels are everywhere!
There's Vernal Fall with, like, 1/4 of its regular flow.
A view from above (Vernal Fall).
After Vernal Fall, Nevada Fall wasn't too long of a hike to get to. But it was still a heck of a hike. I was getting pretty tired by that point, frequently stopping as we were climbing the stairs, making friends with other hikers I kept on passing who kept on passing me while I stopped. Hahaha!
Liberty Cap and Nevada Fall
A group of supply horses also passed us by on Nevada Fall. They were coming from the back country.
A view from atop Nevada Fall.
And back down to Happy Isles
The whole hike took us around four hours, which I am very proud of considering how the poster and guide book estimated it taking 5 - 6 hours on a strenuous trail. I'd say this trail is on the lower spectrum of strenuous.
The only reason I didn't choose to do Half Dome was because I didn't think I was prepared for that long of a hike. And I was probably right in making that decision because even though we finished this hike fast, I could barely walk without wincing in pain at Happy Isles. My feet were definitely not used to walking long distance!
Later that evening, we went to Yosemite Valley's nightly educational film at the theater. The film was on the making of short films for Yosemite Nature Notes, capturing the beauty around the national park. Here's an episode on frazil ice (which is a very cool phenomenon):
From the looks of it, Yosemite during the spring melt ain't so bad either!
Two weeks before school started (three weeks for Tony), we decided it would be a great time to go on vacation! :) We both had five days off from work on August 11 - 15 (Mon. - Fri.). It wasn't until the week before those days off that we finally settled with going to Yosemite and Sequoia National Park. I hadn't ever been to Yosemite and wanted to see what all the hype was about. As for Sequoia, I wanted to see the biggest tree in the world, General Sherman. But if you know anything about Yosemite at all, camp reservation within a week before arrival date is just impossible during the summer, especially around Yosemite Valley. And because we are frugal (ahem, broke), staying at their hotels/cabins for $90+ a night is out of the question. I was devastated when I finally looked at availability for camp sites around the area. The three campgrounds around Yosemite Valley were all reserved. The only ones with available sites are all 45 mins to an hour away from Yosemite Valley, such as Crane Flat and Tuolumne Meadow. Well, you know what? I gots us camp sites IN Yosemite Valley, IN one of the three all-booked campgrounds. Booyah! Here's how I did it... TIPON RESERVATION: You can still book camp sites last minute, even during the high season! The best time of the day to look for available camp sites is during lunch time (11:30am - 1:00pm). The people that have to cancel their reservations will do so during their lunch break, opening up random spots on random days. In the end, for the three nights that we were at Yosemite, I reserved three different camp sites, but all were in Upper Pines Campground. The most wonderful thing is that it's right next to Happy Isles and the trail head to Half Dome. What's even more spectacular--and unexpected--was the fact that it only costs $20 per night!
Camp Site #143, conveniently right by the bathroom.
TIP ON FOOD/FOOD STORAGE: If you're a hardcore camper and need your meat grilled at a campfire, by all means, bring all your food and store them in the provided bear locker at your camp site. You can even buy ingredients from the grocery market if you don't feel like hauling everything on the road with you. But if you don't mind buying food, they have restaurants, a cafeteria, and a little pizza parlor on the valley floor. My point is you won't starve if you forget to bring food. Bear lockers are provided at camp sites and trail head parking lots. We brought a tub full of food thinking we'd cook every meal when we were there. We ended up making oatmeal the first morning and bought food for the rest of the trip. It's so much more convenient, you know. TIP ON HYGIENE: They have showers there! And a pool! Granted you need to pay to use them. For the price of $5, you can use both the pool and the shower (even if you just want to shower, it's still $5, so you might as well take a dip in the pool). The women's showers were all clogged from a massive amount of hair going to the drain. Other than that, it felt pretty good to go to sleep clean. Toilets by the camp sites are generally pretty clean and toilet paper is provided.
A pretty good view for a swimming pool!
TIP ON GETTING AROUND: If you have bikes, bring them. It's so much easier than trying to find parking spots wherever you go. They also have free shuttles, but you know public transportation, it's never on time. They also have bike rentals, but they're super expensive. Bottom line, bring your own bike! So we drove up Monday and did our tourist bit at Tunnel View.
Tunnel by Tunnel View
There's the view (and the sun)!
The unobstructed view.
After that, we literally did a hike a day. Whatever time we have left after the hike, we would spend exploring the valley. On Tuesday we did the Vernal and Nevada Falls hike, on Wednesday we hiked down from Glacier Point, on Thursday we visited Mariposa Grove before driving down to Sequoia, and on Friday we saw General Sherman, went to Moro Rock, and did a Crystal Cave Tour. I will go into more details on each of these hikes in other posts, but here are some preview pictures:
Vernal Fall
Glacier Point
General Sherman's top
Entrance to Crystal Cave (Spiderman lives here! No, not really.)
WEATHER AND WATER CONDITION The weather was actually perfect when we went. Warm during the day and cool at night. However, because of the ongoing drought and lack of snow last winter, the falls were all pretty dry. The Mist Trail wasn't misty at all. While Vernal and Nevada Falls still had water, although very little as you can see from the picture above, Yosemite Fall was chalk dry. If you want raging water, I suggest going earlier in the summer or late spring.
There's Upper and Lower Yosemite Fall for you. You can kind of see the dried water stain.
Overall, I love love LOVE this trip. I love that I get to unplug for five whole days (no cell signal or internet). I felt so refreshed and wholesome once I got back, it's incredible! There are also certain things that I'd like to do next time I visit. I'd like to hike Half Dome in a day, do the Four Mile Trail up and down, and hike to Upper Yosemite Fall. :)
Carpe Diem! Seize the day! As the late Robin Williams had once said in Dead Poets Society. I think I'm slowly starting to understand the implications of what that entails. I've been wanting to go to the L.A. zoo for a while now. Many excuses popped its ugly heads: financial, time, distance, a great googly monster under the bed, you name it. But lately I've been getting this feeling of "I've had enough of this bull poop." Seriously! I'm tired of feeling like I should have done something after making excuses for not doing it, and I'm tired of sitting around dreaming one day I'll do [insert exciting activity] when the conditions are right. The conditions are never right! You either do it or you don't. The moment is now. There is never a better time than now. Someone quoted that, I don't remember who, but that's not the point. If you keep telling yourself "later" it might never happen. Unless, of course, you're an organized freak and puts everything in a planner and follows through no matter what. If you're that person, well, good for you! But I'm not. So I saw that I have Friday off from work and seized the day! Off to the zoo I went with my friend, Ploy. These are a few of the residents we met...
A cute little meerkat. This little guy is actually eyeing the girl standing next to me who was eating an ice cream cone.
You know, it's cute and all that they look at you with oogly eyes begging for food (my dog does it all the time whenever we eat), but it also goes to show that people have been feeding the animals despite signs warning not to. What's even sadder is the fact that included in the warning sign is a statement saying the animals are DIABETIC. C'mon, people, destroy your own health if you must, but don't do it to the animals!
He looks exactly like a lawn ornament!
In front of the reptile house. That lizard seat has been baking in the sun all morning, so I was hovering the whole time. Hahaha!
He's flying! Under water. :)
This one just has a really long neck. He looks friendly enough though.
"Hey there, good lookin'."
I've always been fascinated by snakes. People say they don't have feelings, but it always amazes me when I see two sleeping together like this. Or maybe Harry Potter has just convinced me that snakes are cool. Who knows.
This horned toad. He looks so sleepy. :3
Just chillin' in the pool, you know. Cuz he got nothing better to do.
Just sleeping wedged between trees, you know. It's very comfortable there, I swear.
A gorilla minding her own business.
This guy. The only one of his friends (I hope he has friends because we didn't any more besides him) to come out and show himself on the ledge.
The lions sleeping.
A family of goats(?). Love that goatee!
And these two are just hilarious! If you look closely, you can see the guy on the left busy cleaning the right one's butt-butt. He really had his face all up in there, we were laughing so hard!
I love how his head's cocked sideways and looking back over his shoulder. I think he's a kind of vulture.
Mr. Alligator! That's not his real name though. The zoo named him something like Reggie, but don't quote me on that.
I was actually pleasantly surprised at how clean and un-smelly the zoo is. The habitats are well maintained. The only part of the zoo that smells are when we were close to the marsupials. The koalas stink, man! They're cute and all, but if they smell that bad, I don't ever want to hold one! Nevertheless, the animals look healthy, well fed, and lively (the ones that are awake do anyway). So it was a great experience overall. Pretty darn hot though! I don't recommend the shaved ice. It was totally overpriced and the syrup were not that tasty. There were, however, a bunch of bees by the snack stand. I'm not particularly put off by bees, quite the opposite actually, what with the concerning rising death of bee colonies. I was happy to see a bunch of them at the zoo, although I know someone who's scared of them (ahem, Ploy). I must admit, bees can get annoying, especially when they can't seem to leave your sweets or sweaty skin alone.
