The 260 Mile West Coast Wander - August 2019 - Day 8 - Waterfall's, Bear's & another Lake - Yosemite

[juliab]

INDEX

Sunday 11th August

Couldn’t believe how cool it got in the night I really wasn’t expecting that. I woke around 5am and felt so cold. I managed to drop off to sleep again but only for another hour, I could hear a door being banged shut? This was happening every so often but as time went on it became more regular. I finally worked out it was the men’s shower/toilet block door, oh my word it was so annoying!

I decided I may as well get up so off I went to get a shower, gosh they were so grim but i made sure that I had my flip flops on! I came back then Scott went for his shower it was still fairly early but there was plenty of activity happening with people getting ready for the day. It was a beautiful morning and although I'd felt cool earlier it was starting to warm up nicely.

Poppy had woken so she changed and us three went out to have a look at the breakfast options in the village. We went to the coffee shop inside where it was quite busy but the line kept moving and we bought some coffees along with some cinnamon buns and muffins. The cinnamon buns were so big and they reminded me a bit of the one's in Disney. I also picked up a little carton of milk so that Hayden and I could have some weetabix.

Breakfast time

After breakfast we headed out we were going on the Mist Trail this morning. We walked to the bus stop as we thought this was the best option to get to Happy Isles. We waited a bus came but it was full and they wouldn’t let us on, we waited a while longer and the same happened again!

Bus stop

We popped into the office as it was just behind us and they said if we just followed the path up we’d eventually get there, it was around a mile away. We could’ve just done this in the first place if we’d have realised and saved ourselves a bit of time and walking too.

So we walked back through Curry Village, where we'd just come from and eventually ended up at Happy Isle – it was a nice flat walk and it didn’t take us long either.

From there it was easy to see where to go we just followed everyone.
Now I know we’re not a fit bunch but I wouldn’t say we’re unfit either, we do like to go walking so we thought we’d be ok for this trail.

Unlike the walk to get here the trail started out on an incline. Well we started off fine we made sure all our bottles were full with water but after a little while wow we could start to feel it, more so Poppy. We had to keep stopping every so often for a breather, a drink of water and of course to take some photo’s. This worked well for us all and we noticed that a lot of other people were doing the same. Made me feel a lot better knowing that plenty of other people were doing the same.

The views again were stunning!

Once we arrived at the bridge we had more of a longer stop there, 10 minutes, where we refilled our water bottles and we were going to use the rest rooms but they were closed. Thankfully none of us were desperate to go!

Even though we could see it was quite busy with quite a few people walking up the trail we decided to walk further up to get a better view of Vernal Falls. Thought that we’d continued until we either got too wet or it got too slippery!

Taking a breather!

The views got more fantastic the closer we got and soon we were walking on the steps going up. Unfortunately I tripped over on the stones but thankfully I landed on my hands and knees so I was ok. I was a lot more cautious and I told the kids to be really careful too.

The further up we got though the more slippery the steps were and in some places there wasn’t a great deal of room to manoeuvre around with a lot of people walking back down whilst you’re trying to walk up. I felt it was unsafe for us to go further as what with the amount of people and I also thought our footwear wasn’t appropriate for the wet stone, we had regular trainers on and both Poppy and mine didn’t have a particularly good grip on the soles.

We still got a good sense of the power of Vernal Falls and it was so wonderful to be so close to it. I was also surprised at how much water there was and how wet we were getting even at this point!

Back on our way down I heard a woman saying ‘are you ok sweetie?’ only to turn round and see that Poppy had fallen down the steps. The lady was helping Poppy back up off the floor, I was so thankful for her help, talk about me being a bad mum and not even noticing!

Poppy had grazed her knee it was bleeding quite a bit but she was ok in herself and still had a smile on her face.

We then heard a few excited voices and when we looked down into the river we could see a bear! Oh my word Poppy had said she really wanted to see one and here we were looking at this little bear walking along the rocks in the river! No time for a photo though we were too busy watching and it was a great distraction for Poppy from her fall. We think the mother was in the sidelines watching as someone had spotted a larger bear there.

The walk down was super easy and quick too we stopped at the bridge so I could clean up Poppy’s knee which wasn't too bad at all once we'd washed all the blood away. Made sure to refill our water bottles up then we carried on back down enjoying the easy walk back down and the sunshine.

Hayden cleaned his glasses as they were really dusty and somehow they snapped, right in the middle, there wasn’t a great deal we could do. Hayden eye’s are similar to mine we’re both a little short sighted so we didn’t have much option but for Hayden to use my prescription sunglasses when needed.

Thankfully we were able to use some restrooms when we got back down which was good as we were all a bit desperate. Then we caught the bus to the mirror lake stop, we weren’t on it for long, the bus was packed but luckily we just managed squeezed onto it. The bus driver was really chatted and explained that at this time of the year the lake was transitioning into a meadow.

It was another lovely walk up to Mirror Lake but it seemed like we were walking for quite some distance? When we eventually passed someone I asked if we were going in the right direction and apparently we were.

After some time we arrived and I didn’t really didn't expect to any water so how lovely to see that there was still some there. The views were outstanding again and so beautiful like everything else in Yosemite Valley.

We sat ourselves down for a while and had some more snacks/fruit/juice and took in those stunning views.

Only dipped our toes into the water which was so cold but it was a great way for us to cool down a little. There was plenty of other’s enjoying the water too.

Walk back

After a while we dragged ourselves away from this gorgeous spot and caught the bus back to Curry Village. After a restroom break we had a coffee and the kids had some sodas and an ice cream, they were so big and the kids said so delicious too.

We then caught the bus to Lower Yosemite Falls. Wow we had to wait for a third bus because like earlier they were jam packed full. At least we weren’t in a rush to get there.

It seemed that everyone wanted to see the Yosemite Falls as the bus emptied out when we got to the stop.

This is such an easy walk, all flat and not far at all. As we walked down the path we got our first glimpse and I was so happy to see that there was still water flowing.

I’d read that by August Yosemite Falls can be just a trickle or it could’ve even dried up - so chuffed to see it looking mighty impressive with water flowing down.

Gosh it was really busy here though we didn’t stay too long and we said we'd maybe try to visit another day to enjoy a more peaceful visit.

Luckily we got the bus back to Curry Village ok without much of a wait and we decided to have some food from the Pizza Patio. The line was so long here but it was the same in the food hall inside. It was a lovely evening to sit outside so we just waited it's not like we were in a rush to go anywhere.

The pizza was really good and we got a few sides too. There’s also a bar so we had a couple of well deserved beers with our meal.

Look who we bumped into on our walk back to our cabin

Back at our hut we all took ourselves off for a shower oh my word I couldn’t believe how dusty our legs were you could see where our socks had been. Our trainers were so mucky too!

It was dark by the time we’d finished showering Hayden and Jamie did some reading whilst Poppy Scott and I sat out on our bench chatting. Scott and I had a couple more beers this time from our cool box though which went down a real treat!

Well it had been another beautiful day in Yosemite we seemed to have seen a lot today but yet we knew there was still plenty more for us to explore.

Steps – 23,890

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