Love and Food in the Big D

Friday, October 15, 2010

Yosemite Vacation - Day 3 Panorama Trail

So instead of boring you with needless dialog, I'm just gonna get straight to the point.  This day was spent making the longest, most grueling hike I'd ever been on.  8.2 miles..(sounds do-able, I think I can hang) from 7,200 feet above..from Glacier Point (again...it's downhill, how bad could it really be?!...right?? )  Holy CRAP was I wrong!!  I was fine til the last two miles of straight down steep "steps", aka granite boulders off the sides of three different waterfalls.  Wow.  The views were definitely worth the trouble though.. and I'm just glad I made it down to the valley without amputating my own legs.  ;)

check out our awesome views!




 Glacier Point is actually the rock jutting out the far left hand side of the picture.



The patch of green waaaaaaaaaayyyy down there was our goal for the day.  
Curry Village in Yosemite Valley.  
(here's where you say a little prayer to the hiking gods for getting us down without any incidents)

 Glacier Point again




And we're OFF!  

Our trek to Yosemite Valley


Pausing literally every five minutes to take a picture... 
What?!  We couldn't help it...the views were breathtaking! ;)


Can you spot the falls in the distance?  That was our second stop, 
Nevada falls, where 
we stopped for an afternoon snack!




Half Dome in the distance?  
 I still can't believe Chad actually climbed to the TOP of that monster!  

Getting closer to Illiouette Falls


We MADE it...now time for lunch while watching the water flow by.  



Yosemite Contraband.  ;)
No questions about how one of these huge guys ended up at our house... 
Sssshhhhhh...



Somewhere in there my awesome husband took my backpack from me to lighten my load for a bit... 
What a sweetheart!

Half way there!





Our second waterfall stop.. Nevada Falls

Where we made a cute little furry friend.  :)

Don't be jealous Macie, we left him in Yosemite!





Off the edge at Nevada Falls

Our path leading us to the last falls of the day, Vernal


Vernal Falls seemed close enough... UNTIL we saw the way we had to get there!


Oh yeah.. millions and millions of small, medium and LARGE rocks to traverse.  
SERIOUSLY?!


Sometimes well defined steps... 

Other times... NOT SO MUCH!

Right along side the Nevada waterfall

Where we were expected to make our way down through these steps!
Yikes!  You can't even imagine how steep this seemed to me..

Happy little guy stuffing himself silly with acorns

Even HE made a friend.. I bet it just wanted his acorn ;)

Almost to the bottom!


This was actually the top of the last waterfall of the day. 
Vernal Falls

And yes.. we had to get to the bottom of THAT one now... 

Our view along the Mist Trail.  
Thankfully the trail wasn't too misty this time of year cause I don't think I could've
 handled steep AND WET steps down.  


Taking a breather mid way to assess my surroudings..
What you don't see is the mile long CONTINUATION of these steps 
around the bend and along side the other part of that mountain


So I have to say that from this point on I really didn't like Chad very much anymore and pretty much just focused on getting down to the valley.  My feet hurt.  My toes were SUPER tender from slamming into the front of my shoes for the last 8 miles and my ankles felt swollen beyond my shoe's capacity.  It was pretty ridiculous I have to say.  I am glad to note that we did in fact make it down...sore and bitchy but happy to be back in our little tent cabin that night.  ;)