Visitors 27
Modified 9-Aug-21
Created 30-Dec-20
0 photos
These photos fill in some of the details of our magical hike up the John Muir Trail to the bridge, then up the Mist Trail to the top of Vernal Falls -- then continuing upwards to Clark Point, then back down the John Muir Trail to the Valley.
In the first snowfalls of the season, we experienced multiple weather whiplashes: gentle snow; clearing mist; more snow, driving at times; sunshine on the mist, amazing; more snow; and so on. A wonderful day.
As usual, we got off the trail just above Vernal Falls. We helped our new Brazilian trail friends as we bushwhacked from the Silver Apron toward the bridge across the narrow Merced, just above. Once we found the trail, they took off ahead, toward Clark Point.
The trail up to Clark Point from Vernal Falls was a slog. Driving snow, slippery rocky trail. I was worried about falling and getting injured -- who would rescue us, and how? Helen slowed down and I held on to the back of her pack. This helped my balance and guided me on the trail, allowing me to glance around once in a while. When we got to Clark Point, another pair of hikers, who had passed us on the trail, greeted us from their resting place and took off down the trail. Had they waited for us, to make sure we were OK? There are several good views of Vernal Falls and even Nevada Falls from this trail. Not today, with driving snow and low visibility. But we were glad to traverse the trail safely, at least. And the view from Clark Point was wonderful, clearing skies, mist, sunshine. Granite! Half Dome, Liberty Cap, Vernal Falls, and all. A view down toward the Valley!
Note: my first selection of 10 images -- snow, trees, mist, mountains -- is nearby. Some nice images from the trail below Vernal Falls, and Clark Point. The "Panoramic" gallery contains wide-angle panoramas, stitched together from many photos in different directions from the same place. These panoramas provide an interesting recording of a place and time, but they do not correspond to the view a person has at that place -- a person does not take in a full 360 degrees in one view. This gallery does contain some combined images, stitched together from several photos, yet retaining a small enough field of view so as to seem somewhat reasonable. (Making panoramas is a new undertaking for me.)