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Welcome to the Yosemite Travel Blog. Within these pages, you can read selected stories and musings about our waterfall-themed adventures in Yosemite National Park. Hopefully, you'll find these blogs entertaining and educational. Perhaps you might get a good laugh at our expense, or you might find some nuggets that you can apply to your own travels.
Thumb through the travel blogs below. They are arranged chronologically with the most recent escapade at the top. Enjoy :)
Chasing the Firefall: Driven by the thought of trying to get that sought-after firefall that the late Galen Rowell made so famous, my wife and I went on another spontaneous Yosemite trip. I didn't expect much out of this trip - though I was more concerned about my old 1990 Legend making it through the mountains and the cold... [read more]
Cramps and Thunderstorms at the top of Yosemite Falls: Of all the waterfall hiking and viewing I've done up to this point, the one thing missing was getting to the top of Yosemite Falls. Even though you don't have to get to its top to appreciate the falls and get good photos of it, my inner voice kept nagging at me to do it. And so I gave in to my subconscious (or is it my conscious?) and hiked with mom on what started off as a pleasantly hot and sunny afternoon... [read more]
The REAL Waterwheel Falls: Determined to see Waterwheel Falls after my disappointing discovery last week, the time had come to revisit the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River. We left Mammoth at about 5am, made it up the steep Lee Vining Canyon without incident, and arrived at the Tuolumne Meadows trailhead at a little after 6am. Since we didn't have backcountry permits, we had to do the Waterwheel Falls hike in a day - a strenuous hike of at least 20 miles return! [read more]
The Hungry Bear at Glen Aulin: With my fiancee in Las Vegas on a business trip, Cindy, Ed, and I made final preparations for our upcoming backpack trip. It was Memorial Day Weekend so we planned on getting up early Saturday morning and head straight for the backcountry office by Tuolumne Meadows from Los Angeles. I called the backcountry office to make sure they secured our permits in case we didn't show up before 10am. With the permits being the biggest concern of the trip, it felt pretty good to have things in hand - or so I thought... [read more]
Slithering Company at Rancheria Falls: My parents and I headed back to Yosemite, but this time the goal was to at least see what Rancheria Falls looked like. The weather was quite nice - as opposed to the storm last week that forced me to cancel my reservation and make a last-minute reservation for today. Being that 2004 was a well-below-average rainfall year, we knew there wouldn't be rushing streams going over the footbridges beneath Wapama Falls... [read more]
It's a Small World After All: My work recently did away with the old Paid-Time-Off (PTO) System and instituted a Sick Leave System, which was a bummer since I had heaps of hours hoarded up for longer vacations I anticipated taking - and I didn't anticipate being unhealthy. Now with reduced maximum vacation hours in lieu of sick leave hours, I had to take a vacation or lose some of those hard-earned hours. That sucks! So, where should I go on a spontaneous trip? The first thing that came to mind was a return to Yosemite... [read more]
Bagging Half Dome: Now that the proposal was over, the task before us was the physical challenge. With logistics out of the way - campground reservations made 24 weeks ago, coordinating with friends for camp food arrangements, and getting to the park safely, we now faced the big hike we trained two months for. It was 5am and the moment of truth was upon us... [read more]
Indecent Proposal at Alder Creek Falls: I had to think fast when Julie anticipated that I would propose to her on top of Half Dome, and she thought it was too cliche. And so I decided upon Alder Creek Falls since I'd never seen the falls before, and I figured we'd have a little peace and solitude to share the special moment together. Little did we know we'd have company of the furry kind... [read more]
High and Dry on the way to North Dome: Even at over 8000ft, the summer heat intensified, the breathing got heavier, and my nose kept bleeding. This was not the mountain high I was looking for... [read more]
Locked Out: It took a while to get the car shuttle set up for the one-way Panorama Trail. Plenty of drama as thunderstorms threatened to sabotage our planned hike. But even as we returned to our Yosemite West condo after leaving Andy's vehicle at Curry Village at nearly midnight, none of us could get back into the condo... [read more]
Crossing the Streams at Wapama Falls: It was our first time in Hetch Hetchy. Greeting us were the sweltering early summer heat and full waterfalls. I wondered what that sign in front of the tunnel was for. We were soon about to find out... [read more]
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