Day 3 had us riding back to the valley to try some more hikes, and soaking up the beautiful valley. I went alone to hike to lower Yosemite falls, T balked at the idea of more stairs, so rode around the valley exploring and taking pictures. My hike was steep and hot, but a good excercise, and I was treated to some great views from ‘OMG rock’ which had views of the upper and lower falls together (as well as the village and valley floor below). After a few snacks on the trial it was time to head back to village for lunch, caught up with Tanguy and we pulled into the deli for some freshly made sandwiches this time.
Yosemite valley from OMG rock
Upper and Lower Yosemite falls, not much water flowing in Autumn
We also caught up on wifi, while Tanguy made plans to head to Sacramento. We then scooted off to try and catch Bridalveil falls in the afternoon light; we were abit late, but still worth the visit!
Bridalveil falls
We then carried on through the village loop to directly under El Capitan, we watched the light change on its massive face and managed to spot a hole host of tiny, ant-like climbers hauling themselves and their gear up the face. Most could only be seen with binoculars or spotter scopes. There are some brave people out there! We think we saw maybe 20 altogether. By this time, we were ready to head back to camp to enjoy dinner and arriving before it was pitch black.
The famous El Capitan
How many climbers can you spot there?
Day 4, we planned on heading to a more remote and far less visited portion of the park; – Hetch Herchy Reservoir, basically a valley very similar to Yosemite but which had been dammed and filled with water for San Fransisco. The road was much narrower and rougher to this area! We rode passed a few camps and a lodge, before descending into the valley and parking right by the dam.
We got going on a hike along the side of the lake. We could walk across the dam, and we hiked 2.5 miles along the extremely dry, desert-like hill side. Most of the waterfalls had dried up by this time of the year but Wapama was still flowing down the cliffs. Along the way some hikers warned us of bears near the trail. Sure enough 5 minutes later we passed a sow and her cub only a couple metres from the trail; if I hadn’t been looking for them they would have gone completely undetected as they were quiet and blended in perfectly with the tree undergrowth. We ate lunch at a Rockpool by the falls (we cooked extra dinner last night so we didn’t have to back-track for food).
Many places by now are now shut for the winter, including food stores! It was hot so we headed back to the dam. Along the way we had an interesting chat with an American ex-agriculture worker who had some interesting stories to tell. On the ride back, we stopped at the lodge’s general store in the hopes of picking up dinner. They unfortunately had meager supplies – we’ll just have to be creative tonight. We made do, made sufficient food to get us through the night and went to bed on a cooler evening than the first few.
Zoe
How nice it is to be back in dreamland !! Nature can be so extraordinary beautiful !
Thank you for the beautiful pictures.
Might there be 6 or 7 ppl up the rocks ?
How is T’s bike doing ?
See you soon with more nice pics please 😉
xxx Mum
Relax and cool I would say, hikes and falls, dams and bears.
Weather holds up nicely, great for your kind of travel experiences.
I suppose the bike problem will be reported on in a next episode.
Catching up after 4 days out-of-station!
Baci on Nov 2