Yosemite Photos (Part II)

Many of the photos from the second full day at Yosemite are from the Mist Trail, one of the most popular hiking trails in Yosemite National Park if not the entire country, which takes you up the roaring Vernal Falls as it sprays you all over. If you so desire, which I did, you can continue on to Nevada Falls upriver. It is a trail that everyone who visits Yosemite should look into, even if the elevation gain is significant. The views are worth it. There's nothing like it in the world.

Now, I only mention this because this popular trail is the site of many deaths each year, usually due to people taking a dip in the Emerald Pool after the climb up Vernal Falls. It looks like a calm swimming hole just a hundred feet from the top of 360-foot Vernal Falls, and it sure looks enticing to cool off after that tough climb. But people die every year swimming in it and being pulled over the nearby waterfall.

I was disappointed in the lack of prominent signs near the area, especially since last year was such a particularly bad year for Vernal Falls deaths. In fact, we already have a death this year of a 19-year-old who was swept over Nevada Falls while swimming in what looked like a calm area.

Now I wonder: are people getting most of their hiking information from the internet? Sites like mine? And are those internet resources giving hikers fair warning about the dangers of swimming in the river above huge waterfalls, even if the river looks calm? Perhaps this is the reason last year was particularly tragic. So here goes, my duty as an oft-ignored blogger writing about the Mist Trail: Never ever swim above a waterfall! If you plan to go on this amazing hike - and you really should - plan on not swimming. Seriously, no matter how calm it is, no swimming in the Emerald Pool or anywhere close to the waterfall's edge.

Thank you, and now on to photos!

Half Dome sunrise

Vernal Falls: one of the world's most stunning falls, plus rainbow.

Vernal Falls detail

On the trail above Vernal Falls, just past the deadly Emerald Pool

From left to right: Half Dome from the back, Liberty Cap, and 597-foot tall Nevada Falls

Classic Vernal Falls view

View from the top of 360-foot tall Vernal Falls, plus double rainbow.

Half Dome lit up with sunset

Only the tip touched the sun

Merced River

Merced River reflection

Where the sidewalk ends: Mirror Lake is slowly becoming a meadow.

Our group that made it to the top of Nevada Falls: Enrique, Mona, Alison and Joel, Rebecca, Dad, Courtney, and Me

Courtney watches Vernal Falls

Us at Vernal Falls

Yosemite Photos (Part 1)

All right, if I don't put up these photos of Yosemite soon I'll be desperately far behind the times. I have finally sorted through all of them time and again, and even after all this effort the photos are too numerous to condense into a single blog post. In short, Yosemite is amazing.

So here are some of the best shots I got in the first half-day aEnd the first full day. Enjoy!

El Capitan, the sentinel of Yosemite Valley. Sadly, already two people have died trying to climb to the top this year.

The granite walls make us look small.

Yosemite Falls

My friends think this shot of friends playing Frisbee under North Dome and the Royal Arches is great. I think it's nothing special. What do you think?

How many of my favorite photos featured Half Dome at either sunset (as this one is) or sunrise? It was very hard to narrow them down to just the ones you see here, and there are plenty more coming in Part II!

Another sunset

Sunrise, co-starring North Dome and a log

We trekked to Mariposa Grove of the Giant Sequoias on the first day. Here my little brother looks little indeed!

My favorite tree in the grove is called the Clothespin Tree because it was hollowed out during a forest fire. And yet it lives on.

Courtney hugs a tree.

Courtney and I at the Tunnel Tree

Another one of Yosemite Falls. This is probably my favorite shot I got on the whole trip. Click on the image to see it larger!

Courtney and I at the famous Tunnel View. It was too bright when Dad snapped this shot.

Start of the Yosemite Photo Onslaught

Yosemite Falls, because.

Yes, it's been over a week since I've come back from Yosemite, and yes, I did take over 500 photos there (and let the record show my camera card can't fit more than 508 photos of any reputable quality). And yes, I am still tirelessly sifting through them, organizing them, and reorganizing them. Actually, it's not tireless: I'm quite tired of it. There are, like, 10 nearly identical photos of Nevada Falls that are each slightly different and wrong in slightly unique ways. How can I choose?

One way is by asking for my faithful readership's opinions. So here are four versions of the same shot of Half Dome in the sunrise. Please comment and let me know which of the four are the very best. Thanks folks!

Black and white

Black and white crop

Original

Sepia