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Wednesday, September 10, 2008 Day 5
We awoke at 6:30. We finally adjusted to Pacific Time. The continental breakfast consisted of juice, cereal, waffles, hard-boiled eggs, apples, oranges, Danish, oatmeal, hot chocolate, tea, and Coffee.
The motel was filled with Europeans. Some people from Switzerland sat at our table. There were people from Brittan, Holland, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain visiting the Park. I felt like I was in the Alps rather than the High Sierra. We hiked two trails. One trail to the lower Yosemite Falls. We figured no use in the strenuous climb to the upper falls because there weren’t any. It was the wrong time of year. The falls are volumus in the spring with the melting snow and as the summer goes on, things dry up until the snow comes in November.
We toured the Valley floor on the shuttle bus and took lots of photos. We had lunch at the Yosemite Village Center. We ate outdoors with the ground squirrels and the Steller’s Jays. They are a beautiful blue color.
We got back on the shuttle and went to the Vernal Falls. Vernal means Spring. It was a steep climb and was a rest room and a water tap across a wooden bridge half way up. We refilled our water bottles and began our climb to the falls. They too were a trickle but a little more than the other falls. It clouded up and began to drizzle a little. It felt good in the hot dusty climate. As we neared the top of the falls, a clap of thunder sent us back down. We were sticking out of the rocks like lightning rods. Going down was harder on the legs than going up. It’s a shame we turned back because there was one thunderclap and that was it. We were too tired to climb back up the steep trail.
We finished our loop around the Valley on the shuttle and took the El Capitan bus for a loop out to El Capitan. Our loop was shortened as a group from Italy had gotten on the wrong bus and had to be back at the Yosemite Falls Lodge so they could get their bus back to their motel. The leader of the group was very rude. The bus driver kept telling her she was on the wrong bus but she did not listen or perhaps didn’t understand.
We drove the long drive back out of the canyon to our motel. I changed out of my bug sprayed clothes and we walked through the little Western Town of Mariposa. It was a gold mining town during the California gold rush days. We got a burger at “The Happy Burger” diner and a giant bowl of ice cream. I just had one scoop but it was humongous. It was really good ice cream. We walked back to the motel and called it a night.