Mist and John Muir Trails

Thursday's Thanksgiving dinner at the Ahwahnee Hotel just wasn't enough Yosemite for us this weekend so we headed back yesterday for some hiking.  Our plan was to hike to Taft Point, but the NPS closed the road up there, so we were forced to alter our plans.  Not a problem when there are so many incredible hikes we have not yet taken in the park.  We chose the Mist Trail to the top of Vernal Fall, and then looped back on a portion of the John Muir Trail to escape some of the holiday crowds and see another part of the park.  We took off from the trailhead at Happy Isles Nature Center.

The trail is incredibly steep in places on the way up to Vernal Falls, but the number of little kids on the trail gave me hope that I could make it.  The boulder piles along the trail are amazing.  I can't imagine witnessing a rockfall of that magnitude.

There are more than 600 steep, granite steps completing the last portion of the Mist Trail to the top of Vernal Fall.  This part was tough on the thighs, but I just imagined the people who built the trail and the hard work they participated in and I knew I could make it to the top.  Staring at the steps ahead and not the ground far below made it easier to ignore how high we were.

While late summer and fall are the lowest flow in the falls, it was still worth seeing Vernal Fall up close.  We'd like to see what it looks like in May at full volume.

This is a view of the trail from the top looking down.  It is difficult to see them, but there are people on the trail all the way down to the valley.

At the top the trail splits.  We could have headed back down the way we came, or to the left to view Nevada Fall, but chose to take a right turn and return to Yosemite Valley via a portion of the John Muir Trail.  It did not disappoint.