Yosemite: Valley Views and Waterfalls Galore!

Okay, I better update you all on Yosemite before I go on my next trip there! My friend Katie is coming to visit and we are leaving tomorrow! In fact, I have to leave very shortly to get her from the airport. I'm so excited to go back, and you will see why shortly...

If you recall from my previous post, our first stop in Yosemite was to see the Giant Sequoias. We enjoyed marveling at the massiveness of these trees and ate lunch, then headed to Yosemite Valley. We entered the Valley through the southernmost tunnel and stopped at the spot called "Tunnel View," which is a very famous spot to take in the a view of most of the major landmarks. It was AMAZING!  Imagine coming out of a long, dark tunnel and the first thing you see is this:

El Capitan is the major granite structure on the left, and the waterfall on the right is called Bridalveil Falls. In the distance you can just barely make out Half Dome (just under the cloud arch), which is at the far end of the valley. Being here and seeing this made me teary as I took in the beauty and majesty of God's creation.

Yosemite has many waterfalls, and most are fed by the snow melting in the High Sierras. Here is Bridalveil Falls again, close up. I felt so blessed to have a perfect sunshiny day -- where we were not only seeing amazing granite formations and awesome waterfalls, but rainbows on top of it all! (More rainbows to come...)

Here is Half Dome. Of course you must know that the photos do none of this any justice whatsoever. (More photos of this next time!)

After driving through the valley a ways, marveling and staring and taking photographs the whole way (including this one where you can see yet another waterfall!), we parked and started our ascent toward the waterfalls on the hike that I had planned.

The hike for the afternoon was to see Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls on a trail aptly named the Mist Trail. Since it goes from the valley floor up to the top of not one, but two falls (and all the way to the top of Half Dome if you continue), it is quite steep and there are many places where there are long ascents up stairs carved into the rocks, like these.

And then we saw Vernal Falls. And I now understand what it means for something to be breathtaking, because I was literally gasping for air when I first saw this sight:

I just can't imagine anything more beautiful! And was just in awe thinking that God made all of this and called it good... but then he made man and said it was "very good." And if the creation is this beautiful, how much more so is the Creator?

Since it is still spring, the waterfall was absolutely gushing (it is one of the ones fed by melting snow in the mountains and dries up a bit in the summer after much of the snow is melted) and creating a mist that soaked us through and through (which also created the amazing rainbow! By the way, I stepped on the rainbow's end and there was sadly no pot of gold ;-) ). So we kept climbing up, up to the top where it was almost as beautiful looking back down.

And then we hiked a bit farther until we saw Nevada Falls. Unfortunately, though, it was getting dark and we knew we would not make it back before dark if we went as far as we'd have liked. So we had to turn back because I did not want to meet any of the nocturnal creatures that lived along the hiking path! (Especially bears!)

However, we were able to see both falls from the lookout point we visited (and hiked from) the next day, so there will be more waterfall photos in the next post. And since I am heading back tomorrow with Katie, I imagine there will be even more photos and updates down the road. (Oh yeah, and I'll post even more photos on Facebook soon.)