Yosemite in Snow

Hi Blog.  On Monday, October 28th, we woke up in our Yosemite camp site to some low clouds and rain showers.  No problem.  We knew the rain was coming, so, the day before, we had strung a rain tarp from the back of Great White.  Here is Kathy under the tarp sipping coco-coffee and chowing down on apples and cinnamon oatmeal for breakfast in the rain.

As the clouds thinned out, we could see that the rain had turned to snow in the higher elevations.  The granite peaks looked like cupcakes with white frosting on top.  The weather forecast called for the showers to end and temperatures to rise into the low 60's.  We decided to go ahead with our plans to hike up to Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls even though it was still sprinkling.  Have rain gear, will travel.

We walked over to the trailhead, passing a number of campers ringing out their wet gear.  Just as we arrived at the trailhead, a shuttle bus dropped off some tourists.  They had no rain gear or hiking boots, just umbrellas.  They wanted to know how far the falls were, so we told them 7 miles round trip. They looked at each other and then decided to walk the half mile nature trail and take the bus to the Visitors Center.

As we started up the trail, we felt a little guilty scaring the tourist away from the falls.  We forgot that we calculated the mileage from our campsite - NOT the trailhead.  The actual mileage is 2.4 roundtrip to Vernal Falls and 5.4 to Nevada Falls.  Oh well, our guilt didn't last long as we began walking up and up with a now steady rain.   Hey wait - that rain is awful slushy looking.  I think those are snow flakes.  Yep - it's snowing!  How cool is that.  Look the snow is sticking on the bridge.

We stopped at an overlook and gazed down the valley.  We could hear the Merced River tumbling down, but with all the snow, we couldn't see very far.  Here is what the first snow in Yosemite of this season looked liked.  We met up with a backpacker on his way down.  He warned us there was more snow up top.  By the time we reached the steps to Vernal Falls, the snow was already a couple inches thick where it was sticking, and, on the rest of the trail, it had formed thick slush that was beginning to freeze.  Dave checked his thermometer, and instead of the early 40F temperature increasing to 60F, it had FALLEN to 32F!  Hmmm...no wonder the snow was sticking and freezing.

At the stairs in the photo above, we watched three hikers carefully pick their way down before we headed up.  We made it up to the railed viewing area at the base of the falls.  If you look carefully you can see the ribbon of falls coming down from the cliff above.  This picture is not a black and white photo, but it sure resembled one:

Here is what the falls look like when it is not snowing:

By this point, the snow was coming down pretty fast and furious.  We figured that we could make it to Nevada Falls, but would we be able to make it back down those stone steps if they were all covered in snow and ice?  We decided this would be our turnaround point.  We took one last photo of us with the falls between us and began the task of picking our way back down the steep, slippery steps.

In just the short time it took us to climb up and down the steps to the falls, you can see how much more snow had accumulated on the bridge.

Without any mishaps, we arrived back at the trailhead safe and sound.  Since we cut our hike short, rather than walk back to camp, we decided to jump on the shuttle bus and head into Yosemite Village for something warm to drink.  We found a self-serve deli with a real wood-burning fireplace.  It took a few minutes of table hopping before we got close enough to the fireplace to start drying out our hats and gloves.

As we sat enjoying a bowl of soup and cup of hot chocolate, we struck up a conversation with another couple seeking the warmth of the fireplace.  Turns out, they were also camping in the North Pines Campground.  They pulled in late last night and parked next to a giant white truck with a green tarp behind it.  Yep, we're neighbors.  We had a lovely time chatting with Keith and Diane from Idaho.  We compared notes on a number of national parks.  Before long, the sun was shining and our gloves were almost dry.  Time to get out and explore the valley before all the snow melted.

We stopped in the Visitor's Center for a quick refresher on the history of the Yosemite Valley before heading out across Cook's Meadow to catch a glimpse of Sentinel Dome dusted in snow.

Here is Half Dome with a new snowy white cap.

We watched as the low clouds broke apart and slowly drifted up and over the Middle Brother.

From Sentinel Bridge, we could look up the Merced River and catch a of glimpse of Half Dome reflected in the water below.  We marveled at how different this scene was from the one we saw the day before and posted in our October 27 blog entry.

On the way back to camp, we stopped by the historic Ahwahnee Hotel.  To protect the Ahwahnee from fire, a fate of many of the Park's earlier hotels, its wood-like facade is actually concrete, poured into rough-hewn wooden forms and stained to look like redwood.

As we sat enjoying our hot toddies in the hotel bar, we ran into the neighbors to our right - Fred and Carol.  We caught up with them as they sat in front of the huge fireplace checking their emails.  After chatting about the different hikes and sites in the park, we made plans to join them for a glass of wine after dinner.  We left them to their computer bibbling and headed back to camp.

Just as we were leaving the hotel parking lot to catch the trail back to camp, we noticed a woman photographing two bucks munching on the grass growing next to the trail.  We let her take a few photos, but explained we needed to get on the trail to get back to camp.  She was happy with the photos she got and the deer barely looked up from their nibbling as we walk by.  Just down the trail, we passed a small herd of about 10 does and fawns.  No wonder the guys were sticking close by.

When we got back to camp, we found that the heavy wet snow almost took down our green tarp.  We ended up moving it to a new location because a puddle had formed behind the truck.  There was some snow still on the tent, but once we brushed it off, we were high and dry.  Keith and Diane came back from their adventures in the valley and offered us the use of their Class C camper van while they were out to dinner.  If it had still been raining, we might have taken them up on that offer.  However, we were all set up to cookout.

After dinner, we met up with Fred and Carol (and their dog Hopi) for a glass of wine and chatted about retirement and full-time RVing.  Before long, it was time to snuggle into our Zero Degree sleeping bags and call it a night.  Tomorrow we head back to Oakhurst.  Night night, Half Dome!