Day 4: June 22,
Wednesday: We rode a free shuttle bus to the Happy Isles
to start our hike to the Half Dome. We
started early since this was to be the big hike. We took the Mist trail to the Vernal falls (308
feet drop creates the mist which is more like strong shower at times) and got
all drenched as we climbed strenuously over 700 steps of granite. It was an exhilarating experience to hike
through the mist with views of one, sometimes two rainbows in the morning
sun. One could say that we were dancing
in the mist of rainbows!
We viewed the gushing
Nevada falls
(594 feet drop) along the way. After
that, we hiked alongside Merced river for a
while. A caravan of horses carrying
heavy bags passed us as we heaved our way to the top. There were a lot of other hikers on this
popular trail. After a long trek, we
came to a clearing and a giant rock stood before us. This was quite steep to climb and the sun was
beating on us. Some members of the group
decided not to venture any higher and chose to stay down. When we climbed this huge mountain of a rock,
I saw the formidable “dome” in front of me.
The sight of a huge
smooth dome with very steep climb was menacing.
I shook my head in disbelief at the crazy idea of pulling myself up 300
feet up by cables fixed on the dome. But
Monica, the leader of the group (we were only 3 of us by now), fearlessly
declared that the show must go on. (My
hats off to her for planning the trip and putting up with all the multiple
personalities of each one of us!) So we
put on some heavy-duty gloves to prevent rope burns and up the cables we hauled
ourselves. Until we finally came to the
top! We had made it to the Half
Dome!
The top was as big
as a football field and there was still a lot of snow on it. We got a whole new appreciation of the Yosemite valley from the height of 8842 feet. Coming down the same set of cables which was
no less daunting experience. On the way
back, we followed the scenic John Muir trail and enjoyed splashing in Merced river. The
entire hike was 16 miles long and took us about 11 hours. We had ascended 4800 feet that day.
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