Day 21 – Yosemite (part 1)

Today was a big day. We have been on the road for three weeks, have driven 4000 miles, and have seen 11 national parks. It’s been amazing (and challenging, and stunning, and so much more), and yet with Yosemite we reached a completely different kind of milestone. As one of the oldest national parks it has all the mythos, the history, and some might say “the baggage” that comes with that status. In fact, what we saw was that everything we had heard was true, and that Yosemite is not just one park, it is many different parks to many very different people. I counted at least five unique park experiences for us, though I’ll just recount three.

We got up early and drove into the valley shortly after 8 am. It was peaceful. It was beautiful. It was not busy or crowded. Our kids were still sleeping. We stopped and decided to park near Bridalveil Fall and El Capitan (lots of space for our massive vehicle). It was 8:20. By 9 am our kids were awake and cars were coming in by the dozens. It got busy and loud. Since we were parked, we were set on hiking quite a bit of the Valley Loop trail, and catching the purple shuttle if necessary.

Our first two park experiences can be summarized under the headings of “hiking” and “waterfalls.” While the latter were mostly the destinations of the former activity, they were also our constant companions – you could usually see one from any trail and some of the best vistas were to be had when you weren’t really expecting them.

We hiked to Bridalveil, then to Cathedral Beach, and to Swinging Bridge. And then from the Visitor center to Lower Yosemite Falls and Camp 4, and back to Bridalveil. Hiking offered not just a different perspective for waterfalls, as well as all of the different vistas of El Capitan included below, but it especially gave us quality park time. There were few hikers – less than 10 – who crossed our path, we saw deer and lizards and countless butterflies, we smelled the most delicious fresh air and we could hear the rumble of the raging Merced river. The hiking was so good that Arthur volunteered to hike 4 extra miles with Bill at the end of the day when Leo and I caught the shuttle (and after we had already hiked 9 miles).

Two adventurers and the El

Always present

Starting off it was overcast

As we moved around it became sunnier

Finally, we are on the other side (cathedral beach)

Our trails included two (three) of the park’s many waterfalls. In our experience, the waterfalls deserve their own heading. They are sublime. They are massive and awesome (and this is coming from a family who has seen some great waterfalls in WNC). And they are completely overrun, chaotic, crowded checklist attractions. It was great to be up close and hear the water crashing on the rocks. It was even greater to see both the Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls at the same time from our trail.

getting up close to the lower Fall

Throngs of people still dwarfed by nature

Trees and Upper and Lower Yosemite Fall – from the trail to camp 4

Upper Yosemite Fall

Seeing the Upper Fall on our hike to Swinging Bridge

And here are the Bridalveil Fall pics:

Bridalveil Fall

Last 1.8 miles of the day!

Bridalveil vista from the El Capitan side

Another Bridalveil vista

Our third experience is hopefully not one that’s too common, but since we’ve had one like it already, it seems to be getting standard for us. It is the experience of saving people’s lives. Literally. In a previous iteration we had rescued a family from freezing to death in the middle of nowhere, an hour drive outside Chaco Canyon. This time, it was Bill who rushed to the aid of a mother and son caught in the frigid current of a branch of the Merced river. It all started quite innocently. We had all tried sticking our feet in the water at the very calm Cathedral Beach. (Though I ended that quickly with a reminder of the dire warnings posted everywhere – see image)

Trying the frigid Merced at Cathedral Beach

It says “successful water rescues are rare in Yosemite NP”

The water was incredibly cold – basically just the liquid form of the snow it had been only a few days earlier. When we hiked to Lower Yosemite Fall, we saw a family playing in a much deeper and faster part of the river, but it was also sunnier and some of the water was held back by a blockage of trees and branches across the surface (you might already see where this is going). Assuming the water to be warmer, Bill and Leo tried sticking their feet in again, but soon declared that the water was much too cold. As they began putting their shoes on, we heard a boy calling to his siblings for help and then heard his mother scolding the siblings (from the shore) that they had gotten him into trouble. The boy was hanging onto one of the treelimbs creating the blockage in the middle of the creek. He was about 7 or 8 and he couldn’t swim. His siblings were neither much older nor much taller and it was clear that they couldn’t get him out of that pickle. Bill was about to come to his rescue, when the mother finally realized that her son was really in trouble. She first waded and then jumped into the water and swam to him. She reached him and put him on her back and tried swimming back, but the current was too strong and the water too cold and they both got swept back to the tree debris.  At that point, the mother started panicking, because she could feel the current pulling her under the blockage and she didn’t have the strength to swim out of it. Lucky for her, Bill was on his way. He took his hiking stick and went in. With his shoes, shirt, pants, phone, and keys. Staying as close to the side of the creek as he could, he first fished out the boy and then the mother (with the help of aforementioned hiking stick). Close to the side of the creek still meant he was up to his chest in the icy water. I didn’t take a picture of any of it, because I was getting ready to go and pull him out if need be.  But I do have a picture of Bill and Leo when they were first testing the temperature in the creek and I’ll never forget that this was one of the rare successful water rescues in Yosemite. (And yes, Bill is my hero! Always has been, always will be, but now it’s easier for others to see, too 😊)