Yosemite - Day 1
Half Dome Sunset from Glacier Point Road
Tuesday, October 29 - The Afternoon
Right after leaving Mono Lake, we stopped by the popular Whoa Nellie Deli inside The Mobil gas station. We both grabbed some of the best egg sandwiches we’ve ever had, much needed coffee, and some sweet souvenirs. We had a couple hours in the car ahead of us before reaching the park.
One thing we didn’t prepare for as much as we should have was communicating with people without cell service. For the first time on the trip we were not on our own schedule. Today we were meeting up with my soon to be married buddy, Greg, and his best man, Todd. Neither of us planned today very well but things tend to happen for a reason, right?
After entering the park, we made our way down to the valley and searched for cell service. Don’t make this a habit if you find yourself in Yosemite. It’s not available, just enjoy the beauty of the park. As luck would have it, we passed a black truck that was parked on the side of the road. I quickly performed a graceful pit maneuver and tried to see why the truck seemed familiar to me.
Me: I think that’s Greg.
Kelly: That’s not Greg.
Me: I think it is, it looks a lot like his truck.
Kelly: That’s not Greg.
Me: I’m pretty sure it is, I’m going to go check it out.
Kelly: You’re going to scare those poor people. I’ll wait here.
As I walk up to the truck I notice the dark Texas license plate and the tell all DET248. It was Greg. I hollered out his name and the man giggles followed. I then met Todd, a super nice, full blown Michigander. I say this with nothing but respect. We had some great conversations during the trip about life, kids, growing up, and how to stay in shape as men with full-time jobs and responsibilities. The struggle is real.
Up to this point, the plan was for me, Greg, Todd, and Ian (soon to enter the picture) to take on the hike up to Half Dome, stopping at Little Yosemite campground for the night. In the winter. With the cables down. I warned these fools how cold it had been the days leading up to Yosemite, but I never seemed to make much traction. The news was calling for 10-15deg over the night, and we weren’t prepared for that.
Luckily, Greg and Todd had a power outage in their cabin the night before, leading them to also believe it might be a little too cold to make the hike…and impossible to use our hands and fingers as God intended. By this time Kelly walked over, and we all decided to ditch the Half Dome hike and replace it with a few other hikes for everyone to do. Taft Point-Sentinel Dome-Glacier Point this afternoon, and Mt. Hoffman tomorrow, thanks to some advice from Kendra, one of Kelly’s best friends from MTSU.
Sidebar: Kendra is a park ranger and has been working in Yosemite for the last two years. When she says a hike will be moderate, she really means it’s going to be tough af. None of us realized what was in store for us at Mt. Hoffman.
Back to Tuesday and our newly planned hike. We circled the wagons and headed to Glacier Point trailhead. From there, we set out in a clockwise direction for the loop.
Sentinel Dome was a quick hike from the parking lot and was a great warm-up for the day. The hike was pretty straight forward, and pretty much straight up. Layers were quickly shed by all of us. Most of the park was visible from the top, so we took some time to capture a bit of the first moments in the park. Early on in the hike a little chipmunk was on full display on a log and it absolutely mesmerized us…even Todd got in on the action. The picture of us is so funny to me, and it’s even funnier that none of us captured the chipmunk.
The views on top of Taft Point were incredible, and the proximity to death was a little unnerving. One wrong step at several places along the trail could send you on your way to a 2,000ft ride to the valley. It also offered some of the most epic shots showing the scale of the park. Both Greg and Kelly went out on the ledge while Todd and I stayed back by the railing. Obviously, I had to stay to take pictures…
We finally got in touch with Ian while hanging out on Taft. He just got his permit for the PCT and was trying to link up with us. I think we got him just in time, as he was close to starting the hike up to Half Dome to catch us before the sun went down. He left the valley and headed up to Glacier Point to then hike the trail backwards and eventually run into us.
While Ian was heading our way, we hit the section of the trail that I swear almost hit the heavens with the longest climb of a trail I’ve experienced. It wasn’t steep, it just went on for-ev-er. We were also, supposedly, close to a momma bear and her two cubs at one point. I guess bears in Yosemite aren’t too keen on southerner sandwich with some midwesterners on the side because we never saw them.
Ian found us towards the end of the trail and we all headed back to Glacier point for sunset. Luckily Greg is a photography nerd like me so we almost had strength in numbers…but I think the patience in the group was also very high. Both he and I wanted to get the shot of Half Dome from Glacier Point Road at the hairpin. We stopped there and waited for the sun to do its thing. While finding our composition, we helped out mother a nature a bit with pine cone placement in a very engineery/calculated way. We dialed the number of cones back a bit and felt we hit the sweet spot. Shots were taken, fun was had, and it was now time for them to head back to the lodge and Kelly and me to make our way to Kendra’s place for the night to refuel and recharge for another big day tomorrow.