Hiking Yosemite's Half Dome, and More Big Trees

With less than a week to get from Sacramento to Las Vegas, we had to prioritize our time in the parks in between.  Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Death Valley National Parks were all so close by, but we decided to spend most of our time in Yosemite.  This is a park that we both had heard so much about.  We wanted to do the famous "Half Dome" hike.  When we arrived, we found out that the cables that allow people to climb up the last  - very steep - 400 feet of the dome had already been taken down for the season, and that without climbing equipment we wouldn't be able to reach the summit.  Disappointed but never deterred, we set out anyway, to see how far we could get.

 

 

 

We decided to camp halfway up the first night.  The ascent was steep and rough with heavy packs!

 

But the heavy packs proved to be worth it that evening with a nice campfire!

 

The next morning we left the packs at the campground and felt light as a feather for the rest of the way up.

 

When we reached the point where the cables USED to be, we continued climbing for a while, until it got too steep for us.  We resisted the urge to keep going on to the top with a look down - it was definitely getting a little precarious.

 

We satisfied ourselves with knowing that we made it almost to the top of Half Dome, and had we not had the bad luck of getting there out of season, we would have made it the whole way.  Not a very glamorous tale to tell, but ... c'est la vie.  We got back down to where our gear was waiting, and hauled it down the long, steep path back.  Until next time, Half Dome...

 The very evening we got back from hiking Half Dome happened to be Halloween.  We learned that there was to be a special event called a "Cemetery Walk" in Yosemite's cemetery and went to check it out.  We wandered between gravestones as a guide dressed in period clothing told interesting stories about some of the people who are buried there.  It was a unique way to spend Halloween, but those poor kids all dressed up in costume just wanted some candy, I'm afraid!

 

 

We went to Kings Canyon National Park next and spent the night in a campground there.  We had an unexpected guest at dinner, a little raccoon we named "Coonie".  She was not shy about begging for food!  She even climbed up on the picnic table and tried to steal things when our backs were turned.  She was a little charmer though, and in the end I think she ate about half our food!

 

 

In Sequoia National Park, we were again amazed at beautiful, towering trees.  The Coastal Redwoods that we had seen earlier in our trip are the tallest trees in the world, but the Giant Sequoia is the largest tree by volume.  Just look at these enormous trunks!

Ricardo with General Grant, the widest tree in the park.

General Sherman, the largest known tree, by volume, in the world

 

In Sequoia National Park we had one last stop, Moro Rock.  Moro Rock is called Sequoia's "Half Dome" - but the difference is that you can drive almost the whole way there.  Yes, it's the easy way out, but we were running short on time.  We parked at the bottom and climbed the 400 stairs to get up to the top - a cool trip regardless!  The view from the top was spectacular.  And at least we really made it to the top of this one :)

 

If you notice the winding road behind me in the last picture, that was our way down and out of the park and toward Death Valley and Las Vegas.... that post soon to come!