Doin' the Mist Trail

The Venerable Pinniped made his annual visit to Yosemite earlier this week, and dragged his aged flippers up the Mist Trail for the first time in a decade or so. Despite the steepness of the track and the abundance of tourons, as always the trail was spectacular. Here's a shot of Vernal Falls from partway up. Fortunately, there was only a relatively short stretch where the mist was really heavy.

A fine rain...or I should say mistbow...on the trail.

I am always amazed by this spot. It's called the Silver Apron, and what you're looking at is the Merced River roaring at high speed across a flat stretch of granite! It's a huge mass of water, only a foot deep, racing across smooth rock. Quite a phenomenon! I remember the first time I saw this, about 15 years ago, I was blown away by the spectacle. It is kapu to test the waters here; you could easily be swept off your feet...and over Vernal Falls just a few hundred yards downstream. You have to see a video to get the full impression here...better yet, go for yourself!

Starting the return trip, I made a loop, venturing up the trail past Vernal Falls, gaining 500 feet elevation and traveling an extra mile to avoid getting soaked and having to scramble down the steep steps of the Mist trail, and found this superb view of the cascade from above! It was worth the detour. Far fewer tourons too. For an idea of scale, blow up the picture and check out the people at the top of the falls.

I thought seriously about hiking all the way to the top of Nevada Falls, which would have entailed an extra 2.8 miles and 600 feet of elevation gain and loss. Haven't been up there in a long time. But, I reckoned it would be a little much for the Old Sloat. Sure enough, even without the extra trek, by the time I returned to the valley floor my flippers...and knees...and feet...were all barking. So I just took some pics of Nevada from the John Muir trail above Vernal, near the spot of the previous picture.