Vernal Falls

(photo found here)

My favorite thing to do in Yosemite National Park is to hike up to Vernal Falls. It’s a moderate hike, and takes awhile, but heck, what else are you going to do all day? 😉 If you’re feeling brave, and you have longer, you can keep hiking up to Nevada Falls. It’s a cool feeling to find yourself at the top of a waterfall (see the tiny person there, to the right of the falls?), and a unique way to experience the beauty of Yosemite.

Hopefully, while you’re reading this post, our place is in the process of being sold (goes back on the market today, first open house is tomorrow), and we’re enjoying a beautiful hike up to Vernal Falls. There wasn’t a lot of rain last winter, so I’m not sure how big to expect the falls to be, but as it is a fairly major river (the Merced River), it should be flowing.

This trip, unlike my last, we’ll be putting EVERYTHING that has any fragrance in a bear box. Our Realtor was in Yosemite this week, and said they had an empty cooler, and left a bottle of shampoo and some toothpaste in it, and heard a bear sniffing around in the middle of the night. No thanks.

UPDATE:  Pictures will come soon, but I was high when I said it was a MODERATE hike.  It was HARD.  Though there were small children doing the hike, and people that seemed out of shape, so maybe I’m crazy…but my guide book differentiated between two Vernal Falls hikes…one is moderate, and goes to a bridge where you can SEE the falls.  The second is Strenuous, and goes to the top of the falls.  That’s the hike we took, and it almost took me, I’ll tell you…

Also, um…there were bears.  No one was hurt, but I’m sick of bears being out looking for food when I’m sleeping in a tent and have to hear about it all night long.