We did a few others but here are the Yosemite highlights...
Half Dome
Half Dome is one of those hikes most people who are somewhat well-versed in hiking have heard about. I had actually never heard of it, until my friend Cori mentioned that she had really wanted to do it when she was in Yosemite the previous year but couldn't because her group couldn't get a permit. You need a permit to hike half dome because the trail used to be such a shitshow it was getting dangerous at the final 400 feet which is an ascent done via cables. Google image search for it and you'll see what I mean, it's frightening enough without a ton of people around...
I cannot recommend half dome highly enough. It's fairly grueling but doable if you start super early. It took us about 12 hours to do the 17 miles, which included 2-3 fairly long breaks. Also note that at some times during the summer, there's a shuttle bus running to the trailhead which cuts the hike down to 15 miles, I think. We walked the 1 mile or so each way from the parking lot to the trailhead which was no big deal, it was well-marked.
Here are my half dome tips:
1. BRING GLOVES FOR THE CABLES. Hikers usually throw their gloves in a pile at the base of the final ascent so you might have some to pick through, but I hear the rangers clear the pile occasionally. You want gloves for the cables for sure.
2. START EARLY. Our campsite was about a 40 minute drive from the Valley where the hike starts, so we left around 5 AM and were hiking by 5:45-6 AM. This paid off because bad weather can move in over half dome quickly in the afternoon, but we were back down the cables by 1 PM ish which gave us a lot of peace of mind (most half dome deaths are due to storms that caused the cables to become slippery)
3. PLAN YOUR ROUTE. You can access half dome via the mist trail or the John Muir trail. I highly recommend the way we did it-- the john muir trail on the way up (which is longer but less steep) and the mist trail on the way down. I mostly recommend doing it this way because you get seriously wet on the mist trail, and if you leave early as we did, it will be freezing when you start hiking, and being cold + being wet = miserable.
4. BRING ENOUGH FOOD AND WATER. We passed sooo many people on our way down from the top (so, people who were still on their way up) who were out of water. No good. We were handing out water to randos because Dave made us bring way too much (but better to be safe).
5. DO NOT PANIC. My good friend (who was not nervous the entire hike, I might add) started absolutely freaking out once we got to the cables, and then again, once we were halfway up the cables. It is not good to freak out when you are on the cables, because there is nothing you can do at that point. We had our loudest/most cheerleader-y friend lead the group, and this calmed my other friend down a bit but it was still way more nerve-wracking than it needed to be.
Trail name: Half Dome (via the Mist and/or John Muir Trails)
Distance (RT): 17 miles w/o shuttle
Elevation change: 4800 ft.
Time: 10-13 hours
Yosemite Falls
We did this hike the day we arrived in Yosemite, and it was pretty killer. Grace, Susanne, and I hadn't really had a proper rest from being active after a solid week down the CA coast, Big Sur, and Kings Canyon/Sequoia, and Dave had driven basically overnight from SF after work, and this hike is no joke.
The stats for this hike are not that crazy, but it's a really tough route. In addition, the hike (at least the lower part of it) is incredibly popular, so there are a lot of people on it. A ton of people. You go up via switchbacks for 1,000 feet and sort of feel like you're going to kill yourself at various points, but then the view of the valley is incredible. The trail continues up steeply but the crowds thin out at the second half. We followed the signs to Yosemite Point to get an amazing view of Half Dome, which adds 1.6 miles RT to this hike (the total out-and-back is 7.2 otherwise, so we hiked a little under 9).
This is an amazing hike overall because you basically get great views of the Valley, both falls, and Half Dome.
Trail Name: Yosemite Falls Trail
Distance: 7.2, 8.8 if you continue to Yosemite Point as we did
Elevation Change: 2700 feet for the normal 7.2 mile out-and-back
Time: 6 hours
Half Dome
Half Dome is one of those hikes most people who are somewhat well-versed in hiking have heard about. I had actually never heard of it, until my friend Cori mentioned that she had really wanted to do it when she was in Yosemite the previous year but couldn't because her group couldn't get a permit. You need a permit to hike half dome because the trail used to be such a shitshow it was getting dangerous at the final 400 feet which is an ascent done via cables. Google image search for it and you'll see what I mean, it's frightening enough without a ton of people around...
I cannot recommend half dome highly enough. It's fairly grueling but doable if you start super early. It took us about 12 hours to do the 17 miles, which included 2-3 fairly long breaks. Also note that at some times during the summer, there's a shuttle bus running to the trailhead which cuts the hike down to 15 miles, I think. We walked the 1 mile or so each way from the parking lot to the trailhead which was no big deal, it was well-marked.
Here are my half dome tips:
1. BRING GLOVES FOR THE CABLES. Hikers usually throw their gloves in a pile at the base of the final ascent so you might have some to pick through, but I hear the rangers clear the pile occasionally. You want gloves for the cables for sure.
2. START EARLY. Our campsite was about a 40 minute drive from the Valley where the hike starts, so we left around 5 AM and were hiking by 5:45-6 AM. This paid off because bad weather can move in over half dome quickly in the afternoon, but we were back down the cables by 1 PM ish which gave us a lot of peace of mind (most half dome deaths are due to storms that caused the cables to become slippery)
3. PLAN YOUR ROUTE. You can access half dome via the mist trail or the John Muir trail. I highly recommend the way we did it-- the john muir trail on the way up (which is longer but less steep) and the mist trail on the way down. I mostly recommend doing it this way because you get seriously wet on the mist trail, and if you leave early as we did, it will be freezing when you start hiking, and being cold + being wet = miserable.
4. BRING ENOUGH FOOD AND WATER. We passed sooo many people on our way down from the top (so, people who were still on their way up) who were out of water. No good. We were handing out water to randos because Dave made us bring way too much (but better to be safe).
5. DO NOT PANIC. My good friend (who was not nervous the entire hike, I might add) started absolutely freaking out once we got to the cables, and then again, once we were halfway up the cables. It is not good to freak out when you are on the cables, because there is nothing you can do at that point. We had our loudest/most cheerleader-y friend lead the group, and this calmed my other friend down a bit but it was still way more nerve-wracking than it needed to be.
Trail name: Half Dome (via the Mist and/or John Muir Trails)
Distance (RT): 17 miles w/o shuttle
Elevation change: 4800 ft.
Time: 10-13 hours
Yosemite Falls
We did this hike the day we arrived in Yosemite, and it was pretty killer. Grace, Susanne, and I hadn't really had a proper rest from being active after a solid week down the CA coast, Big Sur, and Kings Canyon/Sequoia, and Dave had driven basically overnight from SF after work, and this hike is no joke.
The stats for this hike are not that crazy, but it's a really tough route. In addition, the hike (at least the lower part of it) is incredibly popular, so there are a lot of people on it. A ton of people. You go up via switchbacks for 1,000 feet and sort of feel like you're going to kill yourself at various points, but then the view of the valley is incredible. The trail continues up steeply but the crowds thin out at the second half. We followed the signs to Yosemite Point to get an amazing view of Half Dome, which adds 1.6 miles RT to this hike (the total out-and-back is 7.2 otherwise, so we hiked a little under 9).
This is an amazing hike overall because you basically get great views of the Valley, both falls, and Half Dome.
Trail Name: Yosemite Falls Trail
Distance: 7.2, 8.8 if you continue to Yosemite Point as we did
Elevation Change: 2700 feet for the normal 7.2 mile out-and-back
Time: 6 hours
