4/22/09: Yosemite is Amazing!

Jen and I had an AMAZING time in Yosemite. It is an incredibly beautiful place.

We drove up early Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon we hiked around some and went up Yosemite Falls. I hiked with Jen and Eve up the first half and then ran the next half and ran back down. It was about 3.6 miles up to the top with 3,000 feet of climbing, so it was some serious running! Average grade was well over 15%.

We started Monday morning by going for a 5 mile hike in the Mariposa Grove, which is home to Giant Sequoias. When they saw giant, they mean GIANT. It was a very cool hike.

In the early afternoon we hiked about 8 miles around Mirror Lake. We were surrounded by huge cliffs on either side, and Mirror Lake showed a reflection of the surrounding mountains (hence the name).

All in all I ran 115 miles in the week I was in San Francisco, making it my biggest training week ever! I needed a few days off to recover afterwards, but I felt great throughout and got lots of practice running in the mountains.



(On the way into Yosemite. We thought this was beautiful, but it got much better).


(The start of the valley in Yosemite)





(The infamous El Capitan)


(A coyote!)
(Yosemite Falls, the largest falls in North America)

(Half Dome)

(Jen and Eve in front of Lower Yosemite Falls)

(Lower and Upper Yosemite Falls)

(Half Dome)

(Will and Eve starting the hike up Yosemite falls)

(Start of the very uphill hike)

(View out from part way up)

(Lots of great views on the way up)

(Yosemite Falls from part way up)

(The second part of the climb from the base of Upper Yosemite Falls. This is where I took off and starting running)

(The trees towars the top had this really cool neon green moss on them)

(Getting snowier as I climb up. The top was a little over 7,000 feet.)

(While there is snow everywhere, I was getting very hot with the difficult climb. I took my shirt off to cool off and thought this shirtless picture with snow in the background was funny.)

(At the top!!!!!)

(Below is the river that feeds Yosemite falls)

(Me at the top)

(Our first day in Yosemite really wore Eve out!!!!)

(Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias)

(I thought this tree was huge!!!)

(This tree was waaaaaayyyyyy bigger)

(I think that's Jen. Hard to tell!)

(Bridal veil falls)

(More falls)

(Start of the hike around Mirror Lake. We end up going past half dome and looping back)

(You can see the really cool reflection in Mirror Lake. In the words of Forrest Gump, "I couldn't tell where the earth stopped and the sky began.")

(Another awesome reflection)