Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park has quite the reputation, so Josh and I arrived with preeeetty high expectations.  Yosemite not only met, but blew our expectations over El Captain, over Half Dome, and across state lines…. wow was this place fantastic.  

We started our attack on Yosemite by bike with a game plan to bike the 13 mile loop around Yosemite Valley and hit a few must-see spots along the way.  This is the moment I realized I did NOT bring gloves, no one in the area seemed to sell gloves, and the air was getting cold… live and learn.  I can proudly say as I write this, I have since acquired gloves, but it took longer than I care to admit.

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Our first stop in Yosemite Valley was to the Lower Falls where we did a brief walk that left us wanting more and quickly changed our game plan for tomorrow… more on that later. 

We continued our bike ride around the Valley with intentions to sit and enjoy some lunch next to mirror lake and marvel at the reflection of Half Dome… and soak up some sun, remember, I didn’t have gloves… sheesh!

Change of plans…

We got to Mirror Lake only to find it almost completely dry, let’s call it a puddle, shall we?  Instead of having lunch by the lake viewing the reflection of the mountains, we sat IN Mirror Lake and partook a bit of sunshine, scenery, and rest.

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We finished our loop back at the Visitors Center and were already planning our day tomorrow to hike Upper Yosemite Falls and a bit further to Yosemite Point.

8 miles round trip… no sweat after what we accomplished in Sequoia… right… WRONG?

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Upper Yosemite Falls was, as a former colleague put it, a butt-kicker and boy were we surprised to have our behinds handed to us by Yosemite as we climbed rocky stair after rocky stair for what seemed like days with Josh’s pace equivalent to the energizer bunny (I may be exaggerating here a bit).  8 miles quickly turned into an 11.3 mile round trip of over 30K steps, and an elevation change of 3600 feet… a larger change than we had ever done.  Upper Yosemite Falls to Yosemite Point was NO laughing matter… but it did crack me up when Josh “booped” Half Dome from the top.

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The next day we drove to Glacier Point to take in a view of Yosemite Valley from a new vantage point, drove down to Mariposa Grove to indulge my massive tree obsession, and headed back to the trailer for some rest, tomorrow is THE DAY!

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Our LAST full day in Yosemite started with a few question marks.  We had our hearts set on summiting Half Dome on our Yosemite trip, but you need a permit to make it to the top.  We missed out on the pre-season lottery for permits as this trip was planned and executed way after that deadline, so we were left with the daily lottery… you put in for the number of permits you want, and you find out 2 days in advance if you get it… we did NOT get selected on either attempt.  No permit was NOT going to stop the Brandts!

Ok, yes it absolutely was, BUT, I read in a blog that sometimes hikers have extra permits from people backing out of their group, so we decided to hike Half Dome as far as we could get without said permit, but ask every group we passed oh so politely if they had any extras.  For the first half of the hike, we were not so lucky finding any extras, but another couple said sometimes if you catch the park ranger on a “good day” or it’s not too busy, you can summit without one.

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That renewed our vigor a bit, but we kept asking hikers anyway… you know, just in case.  We were lucky enough to find a group here and there with one extra permit, so our plan was to wait at the top for those groups to make it if the ranger did not let us pass.  Welp, all the stars aligned, and we stumbled upon two fellow hikers when we were nearing the top, shout out to Jared, the orthodontist from Detroit, and Wesley the health coach from LA who had TWO extra permits and were happy to share with Josh and I.  These two life savers truly saved the day as we were NOT getting past that ranger with his clipboard permit-less.

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After passing the ranger you hike up the stairs of death, I mean Sub Dome, to really get your heart pumping and lungs screaming before you get your first view of THE CABLES to get you up to the summit of Half Dome.  Coming from someone who isn’t necessarily afraid of heights, however I do feel I have excellent self-preservation skill set, this got both mine and Josh’s nerves firing. 

The cables were HARD.  Physically and mentally demanding after already hiking over 8 miles.  We gloved up, tightened our backpack strings, and went for it.  The comradery on the cables between the hikers was empowering and helped distract you from the idea you might slip…. And then you make it to the top and you forget the last 5 hours and experience sheer bliss and serenity… ok and your stomach in your throat but that eventually calms down.

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It took a few minutes for our jitters to calm down enough to be able to eat some lunch, but the views up here made us want to stay all day.  The summit of Half Dome was like walking on Mars, it felt like a completely different planet… and I had to take a closer look down to truly get the full effect… can you see me??

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JUST as we were wrapping up our time at the top and going to head back down the looming cables, we found our saviors, Jared and Wesley, and took an obligatory photo at the summit and shared our appreciation once again before starting our descent.

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The way down we took part of the John Muir trail for the experience as we took the Mist Trail up… the rest is a bit of a blur, except when we saw a big, fuzzy bear, he was quite clear.  By the end of this day we had spent 9 hours on the mountain, hiked 17.7 miles, taken over 43,000 steps, had an elevation change of 5400 feet, our lips were chapped, our stomachs and backpacks were empty, we had full bladders, but most importantly, full hearts.

Not everyone can say they got to summit Half Dome on his or her first time in Yosemite, people wait YEARS for that permit, so the magnitude of our good fortune is not lost on us and our gratitude for this experience is beyond words.

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Yosemite left a permanent mark on both of us and we will absolutely be back for more someday. 

We’d have stayed longer, but Lake Tahoe and Crater Lake are calling our names so onward we go…