Yosemite During Fall

After spending a few rough weeks in the desert, as discussed in my last post, we took some time off from climbing and spent a few days playing the role of tourists in the indisputably best sightseeing destination in the country--Yosemite! Because the pictures speak for themselves, I'm not going to say much about our time in Yosemite and I'll just get straight to the pictures. But first, a couple things to note. Just before we arrived to Yosemite in late October, there was a pretty significant storm in the area, so most of the roads were closed during our short stay, including Glacier Point, Mariposa Grove, and the Tioga Pass. Nonetheless, we roamed around the Valley and were able to see a ton of great sights! Also, we made it back to Yosemite during one of our rest days in Bishop after the Tioga Pass reopened, and we were able to check out Tuolumne Meadows. Also, of note for all the climbers out there, we had a couple high profile sightings while in Yosemite. First, we drove by Alex Honnold while he was standing on the side of the road looking up at El Cap (sadly, that was the extent of our sighting). Second, we camped next to Tommy Caldwell (well, he didn't so much "camp" next to us, rather he rolled into the campsite pretty late at night and left super early in the morning) and we got to catch him on El Cap while he was working the Dawn Wall. Presumably, based on news articles, he was with Kevin Jorgenson and Chris Sharma. It was very, very cool to see them all on the wall (even if they did just appear to be little dots on the enormous wall!). And now for the pictures...which don't do any of the amazing sights we saw justice, but will provide a taste of what we experienced!

Our first view of Yosemite as we entered the park.

El Capitan during sunset.

Yosemite Falls...almost dried up, but still there!

Half Dome in the clouds.

Spotted! A peregrine falcon (we think).

Merced River.

Hike up to Bridal Veil Falls.

Bridal Veil Falls.

The Leaning Tower (which I was excited to see after reading Royal Robbins' first book).

Hike up to Vernal Falls.

Vernal Falls.

Given that it was so late in the season, we had Vernal Falls all to ourselves. It was pretty surreal to experience it just the two of us.

The Ahwahnee Lodge.

Another random view of the Valley.

Mirror Lake, all dried up!

Cairns galore!

First day of seeing Tommy Caldwell & company work Dawn Wall!

Another sighting on our second day!

Tenaya Lake.

A random stop along our drive through Tuolumne Meadows.

Upper Gaylor Lake, partially frozen.

Tioga Lake.

Some little critter was testing out the ice on Tioga Lake!

Leaving Yosemite via the Tioga Pass.

If the pictures didn't convince you, I will emphasize the fact that the fall is a beautiful and magical time to visit Yosemite. Not only are the trees changing color and bits of the park are already covered in early snowfall, but, in addition, there are very few visitors in the park itself so you get to experience Yosemite quite intimately and personally. I was absolutely blown away by how picturesque every aspect of the park was. Every time I turned around I felt I could take a new picture of something amazing.

As always, we miss everyone and hope everyone is having a great start to the holiday season! Keep an eye out for my next blog post on our time in Bishop, CA! Both Marco and I have fallen hard for the eastern Sierra Nevada region...it is absolutely breathtaking and the climbing is endless. Lots of love!