Thursday August 24th
After making breakfast, I left the camp and thought it might be nice to see a little more of the area instead of going immediately. So I went off trying to find the top of the large waterfall, which proved more difficult than I expected. I thought I had passed the head of a waterfall driving to the campground from the town, and hadn’t stopped for it at that point, and I assumed that was the large waterfall, but it turned out to be just a smaller waterfall or weir or something of the sort.
So I found out I had to drive on past the campground to find the large waterfall, and then I actually passed the overlook without realising it, and came to the end of the road, next to another lake. With the help of Google Maps I found it in the end, and it really was spectacular, with a huge torrent of water going down it, and a view over the lakes below. There were a number of lakes in the area. There was no track that went around the lake to the bottom of the falls, and only a very rough informal track going part way down the steep slope the falls were on, but I walked down that track part way and admired the falls, and took some photos.
Then a bit before nine I left for Yosemite National Park, which is very beautiful, and very busy! I headed back onto the main four-lane highway and followed it north for a while, then off onto a smaller road that wound around through the mountains. There was a bit of traffic along here, and not a lot of places to pass. I passed a truck along a stretch where I could see, I think the first time I actually needed to (and was also able to) pass anything. The van was a bit sluggish off the mark at traffic lights, but I found it could accelerate pretty well if you really pushed it, revving up to nearly 7,000rpm. I only needed to do that once or twice.
I kept going up till I reached the entrance to the park which was at 9,500 feet (2,900m), and seemed to be at the peak of a pass. The park itself is huge. It was something like an hour's drive from the park entrance to the Yosemite Valley where I was to stay, and where most of the action is. On the way I passed Tuolumne Meadows, a wide grassy area high up in the mountains. I pulled in there – I had planned to do a bit of a walk along the meadow – but while it was pretty, it didn’t look like a spot for an especially interesting hike, and I decided to press on.
I didn't go right into the Yosemite valley at first. I made a sandwich for lunch at a pull-off near the entrance to the valley, and ate it by a lovely river that ran near the road, and saw a black bear on the other side. It was enjoying the sunshine along with me probably. After lunch I drove on further up a winding road, and through a tunnel, to Glacier Point, which was truly spectacular, a high point overlooking the Yosemite Valley, and with a view to Half Dome on the other side of the valley, which I was to hike to the next day. There was a souvenir and food shop at the summit, and a lot of people around, but I was able to find a car park without much trouble. I met with a few friendly people and we chatted about the hike. They encouraged me to get to the top the next day!
I headed back down into the valley after spending quite a while admiring the views. I had one or two hikes in the Glacier Point area pencilled in, but as often, I was later than I had imagined I might be when I planned things, and the day was running out. The valley had a lovely river running through it, and immense walls of rock rising up around it. I got into an area with buildings, and looked for somewhere to register, without success.
So I found my way to the much sought-after Upper Pines campground where I had been able to get a booking. It was large and very busy, and though it had quite a few trees through it, I think most of the foliage was at the top, and the trunks didn’t afford much privacy, so you could see everyone's campsites pretty much. But people didn’t come to this campground for the ambience. It was nestled deep into the valley, near a lot of good spots, it provided a parking spot (and these were scarce commodities), and for people like me doing the Half Dome hike, it had the big advantage of being within easy walking distance of the trailhead.
Bookings opened about five months beforehand, and prior to that I had booked a campsite at an RV park about half an hour’s drive from the trailhead, as a backup. But since thank the Lord I did score a campsite when bookings opened (even though a lot of them were booked out in seconds), I was able to cancel the other booking. This made a big difference – I would have had to leave very early indeed to get to the trailhead otherwise. It was a very early start as it was, and I was thankful to be able to end the hike right at my van, instead of having to drive back out again.
Upper Pines was a large campground, and there were a lot of fires going, and smoke everywhere. It was interesting to see all the families and groups throughout the campground making dinner, eating or playing games.
I had driven by a kiosk at the entrance to the campground when I came in, but it was closed. I found out from a camp host that you needed to register there between 10am and 4pm or something like that, which wasn't very convenient! Since I was going on the hike all the next day, he suggested to write a note on a piece of paper explaining that and leave it on the dashboard, which I did, and then to register on the Saturday. I had a little walk around, looking at the mountains and the river running near the campground, and worked out how I would exit the campground to get to the hike the next day.
There was a hiking trail that went out to the main trailhead, which ran past the campground, but going out the main campground entrance to get onto the start of that trail and then following it back around the outside of the campground added quite a bit of distance to the walk. I found a way to cut across to the side of the campground from my site to what looked like an access track to a spot on the outside of the campground where the trail went by, and while it wasn’t entirely clear what the boundaries of the campsites were, it looked as though it would be ok to get out that way without going through anyone’s site. After having dinner, I headed to bed for a very early start.
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