Vernal Falls

Finally, we got to the top of Vernal Falls, and it was probably the longest and toughest 1.5 miles I've ever gone up haha....

Looking down from the top of the waterfall, you can see see a narrow strip running up the picture which is actually the steps that we came up...

It was about 10 AM when we got here, so we took a 30 minute break and had some snacks...

Hike to Vernal Falls

The last part of the hike to Vernal Falls, about 0.7 miles up took us about 70 minutes which included over 600 steep granite steps (as described by the National Park Service) and water from the falls coming straight down on us, as you can see from the pictures.

The higher we got, the more you could feel the water...If you look closely at some of these pictures, you can see the steps/trail that we came up on...

Vernal Falls Bridge

According to the sign, Vernal Falls Bridge is a 0.8 mile hike. This mostly uphill trail took us about 30 minutes, not bad considering all the pictures we took. The trail gave us some good views of the water flowing from Vernal Falls.....

I believe the trail starts at roughly 4,000 feet, and not too far into the trail, we already began encountering ice melting from the trees, as you can see from the wet floor.

Friday morning

Through the night, we could hear rain pounding down on the roof of our lodge. When we woke up, the mountains were covered with snow, and in good timing, it looked like the clouds were starting to disappear.

Originally, we wanted to do a different trail, but that was closed due to the snow, so we had to find an alternate hike, a 7 mile round trip hike to Vernal Falls, and then to Nevada Falls.

So with the weather clear, but probably about 40 degrees in the morning, 6 of us began our hike...

Lower Yosemite Falls

A short walk from our lodge is Lower Yosemite Fall, I believe it's about a 1 mile loop...There's one picture where you can see both Lower and Upper Yosemite Fall, but the short hike takes you to Lower Yosemite Falls....

Swinging Bridge

Next stop was the Swinging Bridge which gives a nice view of Upper Yosemite Falls...

Bridalveil Fall

The next stop was Bridalveil Fall, a very short walk from the parking lot, but it takes you right to the bottom of the waterfall, and with all the rain/snow earlier in the week, the waterfall was flowing nicely...Going to see the waterfall was basically like being in a heavy storm....

In the picture with the waterfall, you can see how far away we are from the base, yet you can see all the water that is coming down on the area that we're standing...