Yosemite National Park (California)
We stayed inside the park at the Yosemite West High Sierra Bed & Breakfast. In addition to a delicious homemade breakfast on his outdoor balcony, our host Bob shared his local knowledge of the park. Below are the most memorable experiences we had over the course of three days in this beautiful place . . .
Sentinel Dome - Taft Point Loop Hike
~5 miles, 1120ft elevation gain
A fantastic welcome to Yosemite and a good warmup ahead of hiking Half Dome the following day. The views were spectacular. See this AllTrails link for details. A helpful tip from Bob was to arrive before 7:30-8am (when the rangers routinely close the road to cars), and instead of starting the hike from the Sentinel Dome Parking Lot as indicated in the AllTrails map, start from the special access trail off Glacier Point Road. The precise location is here. Park your car in the small dirt outcropping on the righthand side of the road, opposite the access trail gate on the lefthand side, which you will enter to hike a short distance up to the Sentinel Dome trail. Then continue the counterclockwise loop from there up to Sentinel Dome and out to Taft Point and back around to your car. It's a remarkable hike.
Relaxing in Cook’s Meadow Along the Merced River
Bob recommended taking his lawn chairs one afternoon to relax along the water of the Merced River near El Capitan. We parked here (where the two green hiker icons are located in the image below) and followed the yellow line to the opposite side of the Berg Bridge. The black circle is where we climbed down to the shore of the Merced River and set up the chairs. It was wonderful.
El Capitan Pizza
Late one afternoon we ordered pizza to-go from the Curry Village Pizza Deck and drove it to this pullout near the intersection of Southside Drive and the Bridalveil Falls Trail where there is a spectacular view of El Capitan.
Half Dome Hike
14-16 miles, 10-14 hours, 4800ft elevation gain
One of the best hikes of my life. Our route was 14.2 miles round trip via the Mist Trail, the shortest option to Half Dome with about 4,800ft of elevation gain. This link contains detailed hiking directions. The Mist Trail on its own (3-4 miles roundtrip) is beautiful and passes two waterfalls.
Information from the National Park Service including a 9 minute video explaining the Half Dome hike.
Best link (same as above) about the hike.
A good blog post about the hike.
Cable Permit:
A permit is required for the final 400ft cable ascent to summit.
The cables are up from late May until October.
Applications are accepted here 48 hours in advance with ~50%-60% success rate.
Essential Items:
Ample amounts of food and water (at least 4 liters per person). Plan to eat lunch at or near the summit.
Water filtration system.
I recommend a Katadyn BeFree Replacement Filter ($25) and HydraPak 3L Seeker ($30) (or similar) collapsible water container. The Katadyn filters one liter/minute and will allow you to refill your CamelBaks and water bottles along the Merced River midway between the start/end points and summit.
Headlamps in case you return after dark. (We did).
Hardware store grip gloves for cables.
Harnass and caribineers to attach to cables for final 400ft ascent. Most people do not have them, but clipping in and out of the cable allowed us to help nervous hikers and better distribute our weight, making the climb less demanding (and less intimidating) and more enjoyable.
