Bright and early start to our day. We wanted to get a headstart on the tourists that would be coming up to hike Half Dome…so we were hiking by 5:45.
Steep climb up towards Half Dome, and then stairstep type walking up to the base. Climbing up the actual Half Dome feature is all done on with cables, one for each hand where you walk between the cables. It is steep. Quite steep and all on a smooth slab. Climb 40′ and than take a break steep. There were a pile of gloves at the bottom of the cables, so I borrowed for the climb up. The views from the top of the valley and the surrounding mountains were excellent.
The walk down was something. It felt like we were walking over the edge. Could really feel the steepness coming down. Very glad I had the gloves. Hard to keep from sliding down…legs were pretty weary by the end.
I didnt get too many pics of this cable climb area of Half Dome, but would recommend just doing a Google Image search of Half Dome to get a sense of the climb.
After we got down from Half Dome we headed the 6 miles to Yosemite Valley. There were tons of tourists down here. Very surprised to see so many. Being all dirty from several days out on the trail, we felt a bit out of place.
We found the pizza deck and I had a large pizza myself…first time that I have done that. Hung out on a porch of a building for most of the rest of the afternoon. I did get a shower in the evening after a dinner of ice cream, beer and soda….plenty of carbs.
After getting to the backpackers camp, I was rinsing out some socks when I saw Qball and Freebird walking slowly across the campground pointing… I caught up to them and found they were following a bobcat. We were able to watch him for several minutes before he moved into the woods. A first for me to see in the wild!
Daily Distance: 10
Trip Distance: 924.4
Questions or thoughts on this article? Please leave them below: