Having arrived the previous night in pitch blackness, what an amazing sight greeted us the next morning when we popped our heads out of the tent – Yosemite! In all its glory. I´ve used a little bit of poetic license here, because actually what we saw first thing was lots of other tents and assorted pine trees, but after that, once we had washed (and by now we had got into the habit of being pretty sharpish on the ablutions front) and walked away from the actual campsite, we found outselves in the basin of a beautiful green valley with incredibly high and sheer granite mountain peaks towering above us. Having been in America for some time, we know that one of their main "wow" words is "awesome", but I have to say that Yosemite is indeed truly awe inspiring.
After getting our bearings around the village and a very leisurely breakfast, it was time to head for the hills - Glacier point, in fact, which needed a bit of oomph for us to climb. The sun shone, the air was clear and it was a really great 9+ mile walk, with spectacular views of many of the surrounding mountains and valleys, as well as the odd bird of prey and various types of vegetation. Just before sunset when we were still in the wilderness we saw a bear which was a wonderful sight.
After the previous day´s exertions we decided to do the bottom of the valley walk, which in the end was about 13 miles altogether and we got back just before it got dark, as we had done the previous evening.
Yosemite is very well organised and has accommodation and eating places for the shoestring budget campers right through to those who like to holiday in style. It even has shuttle buses that ferry you to the various places. We had booked originally for two nights (we had to move our tent to a different site after the first night because we had not booked in time to get two consecutive nights on the same site) and thought that we might camp away from the valley the next night, but the other sites are so far away (45-60 minutes) that we really wanted to stay in the valley for a third night, and having fallen in love with the place, for a fourth too if possible. Word around the site was that if you got up early and queued at the reservation desk it might be possible to get a cancellation. So around 630am I joined a handful of others hopefully waiting for the office to open at 8am. Jackpot! We were able to get the same site for the next two nights.
Ok, now it´s time for Katharine to take over the story! Ever since arriving in Yosemite Chris had been enthused about climbing Half Dome. This is the ultimate Yosemite day hike to the park's spiritual centrepiece. 16+ miles and accompanying descriptions of 'extremely strenuous, not for the faint-hearted, best attempted over two days etc etc'. All of these had put the wind up me anyway, but this vertigo sufferer was most put off by the idea of the last 900ft to the crest which are scaled by pulling oneself up cables because the granite is to steep and smooth to be attempted otherwise. Well, the first two days of hikes had been so beautiful and worth all the effort we decided to give it a shot. I decided I need to conquer the fear and trust God! We set off at 6am while it was still dark so that we had a full 13 hours of daylight to get there and back. It was a fabulous day. It did take all our energy and all our courage to get up and back...we could hardly walk for the next week...but it was definitely worth it. I was so tired and glad when we had done the scariest bit I sat down and cried with relief! Hopefully we will be able to post some photos soon. The views from the top were immense but the most significant thing I did was to pop Chris' blisters so that he could make it down again!!! We are never ones to turn down a beer but we were so tired that night it was all we could do to eat something and roll into the tent. We didn't manage to toast our achievement for several days!
After getting our bearings around the village and a very leisurely breakfast, it was time to head for the hills - Glacier point, in fact, which needed a bit of oomph for us to climb. The sun shone, the air was clear and it was a really great 9+ mile walk, with spectacular views of many of the surrounding mountains and valleys, as well as the odd bird of prey and various types of vegetation. Just before sunset when we were still in the wilderness we saw a bear which was a wonderful sight.
After the previous day´s exertions we decided to do the bottom of the valley walk, which in the end was about 13 miles altogether and we got back just before it got dark, as we had done the previous evening.
Yosemite is very well organised and has accommodation and eating places for the shoestring budget campers right through to those who like to holiday in style. It even has shuttle buses that ferry you to the various places. We had booked originally for two nights (we had to move our tent to a different site after the first night because we had not booked in time to get two consecutive nights on the same site) and thought that we might camp away from the valley the next night, but the other sites are so far away (45-60 minutes) that we really wanted to stay in the valley for a third night, and having fallen in love with the place, for a fourth too if possible. Word around the site was that if you got up early and queued at the reservation desk it might be possible to get a cancellation. So around 630am I joined a handful of others hopefully waiting for the office to open at 8am. Jackpot! We were able to get the same site for the next two nights.
Ok, now it´s time for Katharine to take over the story! Ever since arriving in Yosemite Chris had been enthused about climbing Half Dome. This is the ultimate Yosemite day hike to the park's spiritual centrepiece. 16+ miles and accompanying descriptions of 'extremely strenuous, not for the faint-hearted, best attempted over two days etc etc'. All of these had put the wind up me anyway, but this vertigo sufferer was most put off by the idea of the last 900ft to the crest which are scaled by pulling oneself up cables because the granite is to steep and smooth to be attempted otherwise. Well, the first two days of hikes had been so beautiful and worth all the effort we decided to give it a shot. I decided I need to conquer the fear and trust God! We set off at 6am while it was still dark so that we had a full 13 hours of daylight to get there and back. It was a fabulous day. It did take all our energy and all our courage to get up and back...we could hardly walk for the next week...but it was definitely worth it. I was so tired and glad when we had done the scariest bit I sat down and cried with relief! Hopefully we will be able to post some photos soon. The views from the top were immense but the most significant thing I did was to pop Chris' blisters so that he could make it down again!!! We are never ones to turn down a beer but we were so tired that night it was all we could do to eat something and roll into the tent. We didn't manage to toast our achievement for several days!
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