We got down closer and realized that there was a beautiful 5 mile (round-trip) hike to Wapama Falls. We started at the O'Shaughnessy Dam, hiked to the falls, enjoyed a cool break, and headed back.
The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. And, of course, the people watching was great too! I was amazed at how many people headed out on a hike so unprepared. It was not the easiest of hikes, either. And this began Day 1 of the sunburn.
We saw our first rattlesnake of the trip. No worries, there was no rattling.
After getting back to the car we were pretty close to starving. We knew we had passed a little restaurant at one of the resorts nearby so we whipped in there real quick. Only to learn they didn't open for another hour.
We continued on and realized the line to get into Yosemite was gone so we decided we'd try and eat in the park. Boy were we wrong. If you've never been to Yosemite there's the "main" area of the park that's called The Valley. Pretty much everything is there; Trail Heads, restaurants, lodging, shuttles, bathrooms, etc. We ended up getting stuck in stand-still traffic for about an hour and a half. We couldn't get out of the park at all, or park, because there were so many people/cars.
Finally, after getting through The Valley we made our way to the South Entrance and headed towards our campground. We knew there was a town close to Summerdale Campground. BUT, (fun story) on the way I was on "bear watch" and spotted a beautiful brown bear sitting down the hill from the road! I quickly shouted some obscene something-or-other and Sean immediately pulled off in the turn-out. I wasn't able to get a pic but we did get to watch it run across the road.
And then we finally made it to an amazing local pizza spot! We quickly scarfed down a large pepperoni pizza and then headed to set up camp.
Our first stop (while planning our day) was the Lower Yosemite Falls. The weather was cool and the trail was slow and easy.
Yosemite Falls (Left) and Nevada Fall which flows into Vernal Fall (Right)
You could see pretty much everything from Sentinel Dome. I'm terrified of heights so I pretty much stuck to the central part of the dome. We found some shade (what very little there is) and snacked for a bit.
We hiked backed down to Glacier Point, grabbed some ice cream, made bathroom stops, re-filled our water pouches, and prepared for the descent down to The Valley.
Now, when I say 4.6 miles down it definitely sounds all hunky-dory. Right?? I was like, Oh, yea. No worries, I got this. Ummm, no. I didn't have it. We were in direct sun for a majority of the 4.6 miles and it was about 80 degrees. Oh, and then we pass a lady (girl?) RUNNING UP the mountain with her bottle of water. For real. Whatever.
We saw Rattlesnakes two and three on the trail. Notice how this one's taking up a great spot for sitting down.
And then we finally made it to the bottom. Oh, but then we had to walk across The Valley to our car. And I was hungry. So hungry that I didn't even make it to the car. Sean went to get the car while I found us a place to eat. Yes, we took our filthy, sunburned, selves to a really decent restaurant/bar. Again, whatever.
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