After returning to camp, and getting some early dinner, I now really wanted to go somewhere, explore something, go hiking! The map showed Yosemite Falls was pretty close. Without a second thought, I was off.
A couple shots of the scenery leaving the camp site.
I'm sure this cool arch area has a proper name, but I sure don't know it.
They really don't mess around when it comes to bear warning!
Map of the transportation system. From about 7am till 10pm, the buses hit each of the 20 or so points, every 20 minutes.
Ah, there's where I'm headed.
Walked along this nice meadow on my way.
Then this little guy came out of no where, and didn't think twice about me walking past.
What do you do when you see wild animals...you get HD video of said animals!
Walked along this nice grass field.
Another glance over at Half Dome. Ah, can't wait to climb to the top!
I'm still making my way along the grass field, when I hear some movement...
What the hell? This isn't good luck.
I still couldn't help having a seat and petting the cat for a while. There were several very nice and expensive looking cabins all of 30 feet away, and judging by the cats tags, I'm sure he belongs to one of the cabins. I'm guessing the cat didn't read this sign though.
Getting closer!
Cool seeing how this long is decaying naturally.
Now technically this is a short trail. If I would have taken the bus, it would have dropped me off at the trailhead, which is only a half mile fro the falls. I think it's their shortest trail. I'm not 5 minutes into the official trail, and a guy coming back from the falls says, "Hey, there's a bear up that way, be careful." A minute later I'm saying to myself, "OH ****, he wan't joking!"
He went out of sight for a very short time, and then just strolled across the trail.
He was out of sight again, and then could be seen just walk away through a meadow.
Now one might ask how safe was that. There were about 15 people at this time standing there taking pictures and videos. One guy said, "Shouldn't we get back?" I responded, "as long as I can out run someone in this group, I'm fine." A women in her 60s laughed, but gave me a look that she didn't approve of my comment.
That was the bear encounter that didn't scare me. I'll get to the other one in another post.
Up near the falls, there were some people rock climbing.
I could have gone farther up, but I didn't want to show off or anything.
Ah, finally to the falls.
That pic is slightly zoomed in. There's this large, nice wooden bridge for people to stand on at a far distance, and enjoy the scenery. Plenty of people told me, "don't do anything stupid while in Yosemite." Second I got to this bridge, I took one look at the rocks and said to myself, "time to do something stupid!"
Picture showing the rocks and flowing water.
Looks back at where you're suppose to view the falls from.
However, this is MY view of the falls.
The next picture should be deleted, but it shows exactly how close I was. The mist was hitting me constantly.
How often do you get the chance to touch a waterfall?
I love this last picture.
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