Yosemite in July: Gorgeous. Also, crowded.

We finally made it to Yosemite National Park, and loved it: the mountain vistas were even more incredible than we'd hoped.

The scenery even made us quickly forget how almost-shockingly crowded the park is in the summer, with overflowing campgrounds, parking lots, and shuttle buses- a teeming mass of humanity, interspersed with the occasional dumpster-diving black bear.

(Our first morning in the after-mentioned overflowing campground, we were awakened at 6am by the crack of gunshots, followed by shouts of "Get out of here bear! Go on!" I'm not sure we've ever transitioned so quickly from being completely asleep to being absolutely, 100% wide-awake.)

the aptly named Mirror Lake

Fortunately, the crowds remain almost exclusively on the floor of the Yosemite Valley, and immediately after passing Mirror Lake and beginning to hike up towards North Dome we found ourselves completely alone on the trail. As soon as we gained elevation we had spectacular views of the cliffs that encircle the valley, and especially of Half Dome, the enormous fractured mountain of granite that dominates Yosemite. (PK took a quick break to lie around on Indian Rock, while still taking in the amazing scenery.)

Indian Rock

view of half dome

 

After a grueling day of steep ascending, we arrived at what we immediately and unreservedly dubbed the Best Campsite Ever. It was located on top of the North ridge,  directly across from half-dome, with expansive views over the entire breadth of the valley. (And best of all, no other tents in sight!) And just when we thought it couldn't get any more beautiful, the sun started to set and bathed the entire landscape in a soft pink glow. It was so gorgeous that the next morning we leaped out of bed shortly after 5 in order to take-in the sunrise. (Note: this has never happened before... we both hate mornings, and have never voluntarily gotten out of bed until it was absolutely necessary.)

O trying to get his bearings

Best Campsite Ever!

We hiked along the ridge all morning, then had lunch next to thundering Upper Yosemite Falls, which were apparently especially grand this year due to all the snow we had this winter. From there onward it was clear that we were hiking back towards civilization: the trip up to the Falls is one of the most popular daytrips in Yosemite (in spite of being very strenuous and with almost no shelter from the blazing summer sun), and on our way down we passed hundreds of people struggling up the trail, often with faces burnt deep red, wearing sandals, and invariably asking us how much farther they had to go. This was fun for the first few minutes, as we could happily encourage them ("you're almost there!") and they would smile and give us a thumbs-up in return. But as we descended farther and farther from the peak it became increasingly dispiriting to tell already-exhausted people that they still had quite a way to go. We offered water to those who seemed worst off, and argued with each other about whether we should shave a few minutes off of our estimates, in order to give them hope.

sunset

Soon we had reached the bottom ourselves, and got back into our car to join the slow-moving traffic jam that was crawling its way out of the park. Only 4 hours later we were back in our house, still amazed at how close San Francisco is to all this natural beauty.

Upper Yosemite Falls