Exploring Yosemite: A Hiker’s Dream

Update: December 19, 2024

Even after nearly 7 years our visit to Yosemite is still very present. It definitely left an everlasting impression on us. Though we have seen many places in this world Yosemite certainly ranks among the top places that we have visited. I would definitely love to go back and spend more time in the national park.

April 18/19, 2018: Yosemite

Last Tuesday we arrived to San Francisco and immediately took a rental car so we could drive to the Yosemite National Park. Yosemite is one of the most famous US national parks and just about a four hours drive East of San Francisco. We spent a full day in the park and it was such an amazing time!

Luckily there are visionaries in this world being ahead of their time. Abraham Lincoln was the first president who declared the valley of Yosemite as protected area in 1864. Later John Muir was able to convince President Roosevelt to protect an even larger natural area. With this the first US national park was born. Once you escape from the touristic main road (a two lane one-way road that runs in a circle through the valley) you can discover the treasures of this magnificent natural park.

We parked the car on a parking space at the end of the valley that is accessible by vehicles and wanted to go for a shorter walk – however, we were so much taken by the whole area that we finally ended up with doing a hike of more than five hours.

Luckily we noticed the signs on the car park explaining the precautions you have to take against bears as they still live freely in the nature in Yosemite. It is important to follow the rules in order not to make bears used to human food – they easily get addicted and become aggressive once having tasted what humans eat.

Our original destination were the Vernal Falls – however, soon we decided to even climb up to the Nevada Falls. From the car park at 1200 metres altitude we gradually walked up, thus to 1800 metres. A few signs help to find the way. We had no rain that day but the clouds made the lighting for taking photos somewhat difficult. Nevertheless, Michael took many amazing photographs.

The higher we got the more spectacular the views got. Only topped by the sight of a bear along the way. It was approximately 10 meters away from the hiking path. Friendly looking and being in the middle of its lunch it was hardly bothered when we passed by. When a few more people approached Michael was able to make below awesome snapshot:

As the bear was not a fully grown one yet, and on the other hand also not a young one anymore where his mother could be around (and lead to a potentially dangerous situation) – we continued our way with a good feeling.

Eventually, we made it to the top part and were rewarded with breathtaking sights.

We arrived to the Nevada Falls after a quite tiring climb of 600 meters in altitude. As we had not planned to go on a longer hike we had no water or snacks with us. Too bad! The top of Nevada Falls is the perfect pick-nick spot.

After more than five hours we reached the car and were quite happy to have our first break. The bears did not steal our bananas nor our water (we had stowed it away according to the rules). What a wonderful experience it was! We would have loved to stay longer.

Our accommodation for the second night was, like the first, a little outside the park. After some Mexican food we were happy to call it a day and rest before heading to San Francisco the next day.