20.07.17 - 22.07.17 here Sequoia National Park should actually be...

..well, should be. Because we are still in Yosemite. The difference between should and have? The planning of Fabiola and Rahel :-).

Thursday: Hangover mood - From sole, to calf, to buttocks, everything already burns just at the thought of movement. Mood? About as gray as the picture here... we feel like doing nothing and complaining, all day long.

In words: Exhaustion crisis collides with hunger and female decision-making difficulties. Consider yourself lucky to be able to laugh about it from a safe distance :-)

A little more detailed: Actually, today we wanted to head towards Sequoia National Park, in order to tackle the hike from Mineral Mountain Road to River Falls tomorrow. However, once again, the enormous distances got in our way. Because our booked accommodation was, despite its proximity to the park, still over 2 hours away from the starting point of the hike. So, it was time for a change of plans. Change the accommodation or choose a different hiking route? Female indecisiveness should be offered as a course in psychology. The emotions during those 2 hours were a combination of a wild teenager in the finding phase and a crying, hungry baby, both driving you crazy.

Well, we found accommodation via AirBnB that was only about 30 minutes away from the planned starting point of the hike, the rest was fully booked or too far away. So, we directly messaged the nice gentlemen. Since we could do nothing but wait and finally do something about our hunger, that's exactly what we did.

After refueling and a coffee infusion, we laid lazily by the river at the Swinging-Bridge. Somehow, even the weather matched our mood that day. Overcast and gray. As we later found out, it wasn't the weather, but a forest fire raging in Mariposa, a few kilometers away from us, that obscured the view of the past two days.

5:30 PM.. oops, we both took a slightly longer nap. If we want to make it to Sequoia today, we should start moving slowly...

6:30 PM.. Sequoia canceled, Yosemite reloaded. We just brought our suitcases back to our old room and checked back in at Fish Camp. We actually only wanted to get some Wi-Fi on the way to Sequoia to check if the nice gentleman from AirBnB had replied, and we decided spontaneously to stay here for another two days, otherwise we would have been 'homeless' (the nice gentleman wasn't that nice after all, because he didn't respond).

Friday: Well-rested and energized, the world looks completely different. Happy that we now have plenty of time to explore the park in more detail, we are going hiking again today. We have chosen the Yosemite Falls Trail. This trail is located on the north side and is known for having little forest and lots of sun. Let's sizzle.

The steep path uphill leaves plenty of room for the question why one keeps doing this? Cursing, snorting, sweating and not quite as chatty, we move uphill, past Yosemite Fall to Yosemite Point, the view always breathtaking.

..now we know why again!

Since this route was much more 'hiked' and not as diverse as the Four Miles Trail, we personally liked the former much better. Definitely worth seeing is the waterfall 'pool', after a short 'climbing session' behind the viewpoint over the Yosemite Valley as well as the entire water landscape in front of it (also great for taking a break in peace.. in our case including a power nap at lunchtime).

We found it a bit of a shame that you could only go back down the same way unless you add an additional 10 more miles, which can be exhausting after the very strenuous and hot ascent.

Our summary of Yosemite National Park: Beautiful park, great diversity and just right for any forest and water fan. However, we would recommend doing the Yosemite Falls Trail first and the Four Miles Trail second to have more potential. We highly recommend the White Chief Mountain Lodge in Fish Camp, a very well-maintained facility surrounded by nothing but forest. It was beautiful... :-)