roadtrip 2019     

The upper falls of this iconic waterfall, at it's highest capacity in many years. Later in the season the flow will be markedly reduced.

View of the upper and lower falls from the trail. Lots of people on this loop trail to the lower falls. Most of the gift shop postcards have better photos...

Lower falls, from the trail. The mist was more like a steady blowing rain...

View from the bridge over the creek at the bottom of the falls.

This fellow was fearless. He landed to a perch on a fencepost not more than an arm's length away, hoping to steal some Trader Joe's Trail Mix.

"I said I would like some of your crunchy stuff... didn't you hear me?"

This was the parking lot at 8:00 a.m. By 10:00, it was full and the drive into the lot was barricaded. I am completely aware that our vehicle was in that lot and part of the problem, and though I don't know what the answer is, probably more parking lots isn't it. Even the shuttle busses were packed to capacity with people standing in the aisle all the way back, and they ran every 15 minutes all day long.

Photo courtesy National Park Service.

About El Capitan, Wikipedia says:
"The granite monolith is about 3,000 feet (914 m) from base to summit along its tallest face, and is a popular objective for rock climbers... The top of El Capitan can be reached by hiking out of Yosemite Valley on the trail next to Yosemite Falls, then proceeding west. For climbers, the challenge is to climb up the sheer granite face. There are many named climbing routes, all of them arduous."

The day we visited, the shuttle dropped us off at a viewpoint and drew our attention to a tiny red speck about half-way up the granite face. He said to look closely, that the red speck was probably where the climbers slept the previous night. He also said the rockface was probably crawling with climbers.

So, I pulled out my camera with its 65X optical zoom and homed in on the red dot, and then engaged the electronic zoom out to the max, and sure enough, that little red dot turned out to be a rockface bivouac.

Two climbers, one up ahead, the other still at the bivouac. It takes 4 to 5 days to make the climb. Just a couple weeks ago, a 10-year-old girl and her dad made the climb, making her the youngest ever to do it.

Sleeping platform, with many bags of climbing equipment hanging below. The climber standing on the platform is harnessed to a belt of climbing hardware and is probably about to set out. All this stuff is what made the tiny red dot on the rockwall. I wonder if they have a Keurig?

Climber out ahead of the red dot. Looks like some kind of ladder he's using. The photo is skewed, the ladder should be hanging vertically not diagonally, but there it is.

So, several other people wandered ovr to the viewpoint and started talking. They had been there the day before when a ranger had a telescope set up, and they were wondering how far the "blue climbers" had gotten. Blue climbers? They pointed them out and said "Look, one of them is swinging back and forth on the rope... looks like he might have lost his hold!" Swinging at the end of his rope? See the blue climbers in this photo?

Here they are, circled in red. You might want to "right click/view image" on this one.

Here's the guy swinging at the end of his rope. He's trying to get over to that ridge.

Looks like he made it to the ridge. Question is, now what?

rock portal

rock portal

Text and images copyright 2018 Thomas D'Alessio and Jocelyn Boor