Yosemite National Park 18.07.17 - 20.07.17

Tuesday: Get up early, have breakfast, pick up the car and then straight to Yosemite National Park... that's the plan. Well, we actually left around 2pm. After getting lost three times and spending over an hour shopping at Walmart, we finally arrived in the idyllic Fish Camp, just before Yosemite National Park, at around 9pm. Hallelujah!

Wednesday: The plan for today: hiking. We haven't really planned anything. Spontaneity for the win! So we decided to hike the Four Miles Trail, then continue on the Panorama Trail, and how exactly to go back down? Well, we'll figure it out. The plan was to hike around 12-16 kilometers, easy going.

During the hike, we met Kevin from San Diego. He is an experienced backpacker who has already explored many national parks for a longer period of time. So he gave us great tips and made the 960-meter ascent a bit easier with his exciting stories. Once we reached the top, it was time for some feeding, not the bears and cougars in the park, but Rahel was apparently hungry.

We were both a bit disappointed with the view from Glacier Point, somehow we expected more and the visibility was poor due to the fog. Kevin said that the visibility had never been so bad before, lucky ones!

Feeling strengthened, we continued on the Panorama Trail around 4pm, which lived up to its name. The view was breathtaking, especially the view of the waterfalls and the incredible diversity of nature. Pictures speak louder than words:

...4.5 hours later, we started to worry if we would make it down before it gets dark, as it was already 8:45pm and the distance to the valley didn't seem to get any shorter. But with such a sunset, you somehow forget about everything, especially the time..

...we eventually found the mistake, as we took the wrong turn at Clark Point. Instead of going back directly to Yosemite Valley, we continued on to Vernal Fall. Sightseeing the waterfall at night at 10pm - not photogenic but pure adventure. The descent on hundreds of steep stairs, without a headlamp - good luck.. but we survived. Finally back in the valley, we were lucky to catch the last shuttle bus that was supposed to take us to our parking lot, I mean, supposed to, because the station where our car was parked was of course no longer served. So we had to walk again. On the way there, a friendly ranger took pity on us two ladies in the light of the iPhone flashlight, he gave us his headlamp and just said 'god bless you'...

11:30pm, arrival in Fish Camp, happy feet & faces... from planned 16 kilometers it became 28 kilometers and from five hours it finally became nine hours of hiking. Enough for today :-)