June 26, 2017
Yosemite day 1. Upper Yosemite Falls Trail
Start time: 8:50 a.m.; end time: 4:20 p.m.
Distance: 7.2 miles roundtrip; elevation gain: 2700 ft
First full day in the park and we were ready to be amazed. We took the shuttle to the infamous camp 4 and as we get off the bus the driver says, “for those of you hiking the Upper Yosemite Falls Trail, make sure you have enough water. There are no water sources along the hike. also, this is the most strenuous hike in the park.” Guess we should have known that since we were hiking to the top of North America’s tallest waterfall we’d have our work cut out for us.
The trail started off rocky with a bunch of small switchbacks. It then got sandy as we reached the lookout point at columbia rock. After an awe inspiring view from the bottom of the falls, we were awarded with some more rocks to climb over. Talk about a butt workout! Unfortunately one of the team wasn’t feeling well so we left her about an hour from the top.
My favorite part about hiking is the random conversations you have with the people in your group in order to pass the time and take your mind off of the pain of the hike. We discussed funny job stories, how to handle our finances as 20-somethings, and how exercise makes us crave greasy food such as a cheeseburger.
After the natural stair master, we finally make it to the top! We agreed that it was an amazing view of the valley, but if you came to see views of the waterfall, it didn’t cater too much to that. Off to the left there was a separate outlook down some treacherous looking stairs. you may be tired from the hike, but make sure you make the extra effort to walk down them.
We made sure to not spend too much time up there because we needed to get back down to our fourth member. At the point where we left her, we had heard that it was 30 minutes to the falls. On our way down, we realized 3 hours had passed…needless to say she was worried and had texted whether we were on our way down. When reunited, we made a quick descent.
After hard days work, we deserved a cheeseburger.
