We are all excited to do Yosemite Mist Trail & John Muir trail hike. We have been thinking of doing this since last year. We rented a beautiful vacation home at Pine Mountain Lake. Well, even though it was a one day hike, we packed plenty of food as if we are going to a desert :). We left on Friday around 3.30 PM and reached around 5.50 PM. We refreshed and few of us biked and others walked to lake which is 1 mile away. We came across many Deer on our way. After that we played basket ball and revisited childhood activities swinging and climbing to arcade etc..
05/12th- We started hike at 8 AM. The weather was just perfect when we set off from the Happy Isles trailhead. We quickly reached the bridge and had our first glimpse of Vernal Falls. Form thereon the trail quickly climbed and we felt the first hint of the mist from the falls on our faces. We wore our ponchos, and slowly climbed up the so wet, slippery steps to the top of Vernal Falls. The early morning sun filtering trough the mist created many beautiful rainbows. We spent a few minutes admiring Vernal Falls from the top and then resumed our climb up to Nevada Falls. The route was pretty tricky, involving climbing over granite steps that could be barely seen. Along the way, we stopped many times to admire Nevada Falls which was in full flow. We reached the top at around 11:30 am and found ourselves a nice shady spot next to the Merced river to have a leisurely lunch. The views from the top of Nevada Falls were magnificent and awe inspiring. We then started the loop back on John Muir trail, which was pretty wet, muddy and slippery. Just after Clarks point, we found ourselves looking at a trail that had been wiped out by a rockslide the previous night. We nervously climbed over broken rocks, trees and foliage. It was pretty nerve racking, since we could still see rocks rolling down the hillside. In fact, after we had navigated through the rockslide, we came across a ranger who was on his way up to close the trail to all hikers. It was 3 pm by the time we finished the hike of 9.25 miles. Well done Team!!
Difficulty: 07/10
Total hike time: 5.00 hr
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Early morning sun rays falling on trees
with Vernal Falls in the Background |
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On Mist Trail,getting ready for the waterfall spray
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Vernal Falls
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In spite of ponchos we were fully soaked
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Nevada falls with Half Dome in the background
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| Taking one of the many snack breaks |
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Rainbow formation
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Rock slide happened on previous day
swept approx a mile of John Muir Trail |
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| Fallen tress all over |
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| Mother's day horse riding through Chapparal forest:) |
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| Nevada Falls from the top |
