SRHike: Upper Yosemite Falls Trail, Yosemite, 4000 K Cal,7.5 Miles, 7Hr, Elevation 2,640 ft from Trail head base, Base Elevation 4000 FT

It was time for our annual hike in Yosemite. We reached the park @8am. The weather forecast indicated pleasant temperatures around upper 60's but ended up being much higher than that. I have read about this hike on several sites. One thing that is commonly mentioned on every site is that it is a very difficult and strenuous hike and one that would increase one's heart rate to its peak. I was not worried about all this until I watched the YouTube video of the last few steps that takes you down to the observation deck.To tell the truth, I was very stressed about it and hoped that we wouldn't do those last few steps.We started the hike with lot of enthusiasm which evaporated with in the first quarter mile of hike. It's a constant climb over granite rocks, pebbles and gravel rocks through innumerable switchbacks and in the first mile we gained over 1000 ft elevation. Columbia Rock at around 5000 ft gave us our first views of the falls. We had glorious views of Half Dome, the valley and the falls itself. It was at it's peak and the spray allowed us to cool down a little. The next part of the hike was the most stressful, exposing us to direct sunlight that seemed to be amplified by the granite walls surrounding us. We had to watch every step we took to prevent twisting our ankle or worse. We started to feel dehydrated and had to take frequent stops. We took a snack break at around 12 noon. We slowly climbed our way to the top but celebrations were premature. We had to climb down to the observation deck on steep narrow steps, clinging on to rails one side with a sheer drop on the other side. The wind generated by the tremendous force of the falling water added to the danger. But we finally made it. We spent around 15 min there and then went back up and had our lunch and relaxed for an our. We then hiked down another half a mile to a wooden bridge that crossed over to the other side of the river. We finally started on our way back, making frequent stops to pour cold mountain water on our heads & face to cool us down. Two of the team members took a spur trail at Columbia Rock to the Oh My Gosh! point from where they saw all the three sections of the fall - upper, middle and lower section. The final set of switchbacks was very frustrating, especially since the mosquitoes would not allow us to sit for even a minute. We reach the valley floor at 4:30 pm and rewarded ourselves with an ice cream. While the sense of satisfaction on completing the hike was great, I doubt I would want to repeat it again!

Route: Upper Yosemite Falls Trail
Time: 7 hr
Difficulty: 8.5/10
Total Elevation:6,640Ft