Yosemite Part 2 - Yosemite Valley

The next morning we awoke to clear skies. A great day to drive into Yosemite Valley for day hikes.







After parking near the Happy Isles Nature Center, we took a Park shuttle bus to the Vernal Falls Footbridge trail head. It was a two mile round trip hike beginning with a 400 foot climb off the valley floor.

The trail continued on to the top of Vernal Falls and then on to Nevada Falls. Having achieved most of the scenic views, we chose to stop at the bridge as did many others. Even though we are retired, we still find it necessary to balance our time against the endless number of possible things one can do in a day. Some days it seems a pity that there are so few hours of daylight in a given day. It makes you wish for the endless daylight hours of Alaska summers.



We closed out the day with a short hike to Yosemite Falls. It's a 2,425 foot drop, the tallest in North America and the fifth tallest in the world. To imagine the height, it is 10 times taller than Niagara Falls and twice the height of the Empire State Building.

Using the free National Park Shuttle Bus, we returned to our car.