Distance: 6.8 miles round trip on trail and cross country
Summit Elevation: N/A
Elevation Gain: 600'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0.4
Round trip time: 4 hours
Recommended water: 48 oz.
Parking/Fees: $35 National Parks Fee (one car for one week)
Difficulty: Easy
On our second day of hunting waterfalls in Yosemite Valley, Leisa and I started by the Ahwahnee Hotel to view the Royal Arches Cascades. This is one of the seasonal falls that dries up in summer. It wasn't much in April, but the lower falls had a decent flow.
Then, we drove near Bridalveil Fall to start hiking. The road and Bridalveil itself was closed and fenced off for renovations. Despite being closed, it was the most popular waterfall in the park. Dozens of cars were lined up on the side of the road, with some adventurous vistors charging into the forest for a closer look. We were more interested in other falls so took photos from the road. Then, we jumped on the Valley Loop trail.
Next up was Yosemite Falls, the highest waterfall in North America and second most popular in the park. The lower falls were a short hike and easy to reach on a paved trail. We hiked to the upper falls two summers ago, and it was a substantial hike to get there. It wasn't flowing much then, but was roaring now. We didn't want to burn half a day getting there, so moved on toward El Capitan and Ribbon Falls.
Ribbon Falls is another seasonal waterfall and second longest in the park (1600'). The water appeared to evaporate about half way down, but the creek was wide and strong below it. We rock hopped over the creek as we continued on the Valley Loop Trail. On the way, we went up one of the climber trails to the start of the main routes to the nose on El Cap. I climbed up about 20' on solid, grippy granite, then abandoned my free solo attempt with 2,980' to go. Maybe next time, haha.
We completed the loop trail, then drove a short distance down highway 140 to The Cascades and Wildcat Falls. From the turn out, you can only see the top of The Cascades. We did some fun boulder scrambling to get closer to it. There was a short use trail to the bottom of Wildcat Falls, another seasonal waterfall. We saw another seasonal waterfall, Sentinal Falls, near the Sentinal rock feature, but didn't get any photos. We tried to get it on our third day, but it was socked in with clouds. We even hiked up the four mile trail to try to get a look at it, but never got another glimpse.
No comments:
Post a Comment