To say last night did not go well would be an understatement. I was warm and fast asleep when a car door jolted me awake. I could not believe it was happening again! I have nothing against foreigners but do they just not understand personal space? Here they maneuvered their van so its headlights were shining directly at my camper window. They kept making noise too and the angry side of me wanted to step out and give them a piece of my mind; however, I only could make out three men and I was only one woman. I was not sure what they were doing but they were less than six feet from me so I had my keys in one hand to sound my car alarm and my gun right next to me just in case. After about an hour of doors slamming, lights flashing, I think I made out a woman's' voice and I realized they were camping right here. They literally started making food at 22:00 on the picnic table at my site and pulled their vehicle even closer! Needless to say I did not get any sleep after that for now I was freezing cold and I did not feel comfortable with these strangers so close.
At 06:00 I got up and went about my morning, albeit freezing cold, not caring at all if I was being loud. I had to go to the bathroom so badly last night but I didn't feel safe walking out to the porta potty so I held it until morning light. I made a protein shake and found out water had leaked into the container that contained my birthday cake flavored shake and ruined it. I will have to clean that out when I get time at some point. It was 36 degrees out and my hands were freezing so I decided to make some hot tea and started up my vehicle. I had decided during the night that I would not be leaving my camper here alone for I did not feel comfortable with it at all.
I drove up to Yosemite National Park and the road was very twisty and curvy (don't know why I just used basically the same description haha) but it was a lot of fun. When I entered Yosemite village, around an hour later, it was already very busy and finding parking for a camper was a huge headache. They were doing construction within the park and I have noticed that construction in National Parks is the worst for they don't bother adding additional signs to redirect people. Eventually, I found parking across from Camp #4 and detached my camper to drive back to the visitor center. There I purchased my sticker and was going to ask about hiking but the line was to the door so I opted to hit up one of the park info tents in the parking area. Taking the mans suggestion I got back in my vehicle, after making a sandwich, and parked my vehicle next to my camper. I readied my pack and took a shuttle to my destination. Mind you all day it did not get above 66 degrees so I was quite cold.
My hike was to Vernal Falls and beyond to Nevada falls which in total would be a 5.4 mile round trip. The hike up was literally all uphill and comprised of very large steps that had a layer of moisture on them from the spray coming off of the waterfall. I was breathing hard as always but I did great until I was almost to the top of the second waterfall, Nevada falls. There I had to stop quite often and boy do I smell horrible! Is it bad I can't even stand the smell of myself? The hike up to both waterfalls was breathtaking. The first section, to Vernal Falls, was covered in moss and the walls of rock were laden down with ferns and various other green plants while the air was thick with the moisture from the falls. The second section, to Nevada Falls, was drier and at first was within the woods but soon entered into an open rock face that was open to the elements.
On the way down, I met a man who I began talking with and we ended up hiking back down together. I gave him my blog address and after snapping a few pictures for each other we parted ways. From there I took the shuttle back to my vehicle to snack on some strawberries and a bag of dried fruit and nuts I had found stashed within my pack. Then I drove to El Captain to snap some pictures and after speaking with my mom I devised a plan.
Tomorrow I will hike to the Upper Yosemite falls, enjoy a beer at the lodge, see the sunset at Glacier Point and call to see if my mail arrived in Oakhurst and if so make an appointment for my passport. So with that decided I drove out of the park, after acquiring my camper of course, to El Portal to get some fuel and park on the side of the road for the night.
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| Vernal Falls |
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| Vernal Falls |
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| Nevada Falls |
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| Nevada Falls |
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| Vernal Falls |
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