Yosemite Backpacking Trip

For almost three years now, my closest college friends from Colby have been talking about making a trip out to the Bay Area. Following the vaccine rollout, we finally planned a trip for them to come and work in the San Francisco for 12 days. They flew in from Boston on Thursday, May 13th and we spent the first weekend backpacking in Yosemite National Park. It was an honor to host these guys on their first visit to Yosemite - there is nothing better than seeing a reaction to some of the first views driving into the park and passing through the tunnel.

Our three day backpacking journey started from Glacier Point on Friday, May 14th and ended back down in Yosemite Valley on Sunday, May 16th. On our first day, we parked one car in the valley and piled all 6 of us and 6 backpacks into my Jeep and drove up to Glacier Point. We hiked along the Panorama Trail down to Illilouette Basin and camped along the Illilouette river that night. Our second day was a long one - we continued past Illilouette Falls along the Panorama Trail over Nevada Falls to Little Yosemite Valley, our campsite for night two. We arrived at LYV around lunchtime and after eating and setting up camp, we hiked up the steep trail towards Half Dome. Even though we split one pack between the 6 of us, this hike was challenging and took us a bit of time. Eventually, we summited Sub Dome and the guys were in awe of Half Dome and the cables.

We returned to camp, cleaned off in the chilly Merced River, and hungout around a small campfire. The next morning was hurried by a rainy forecast so we scrapped plans of hiking Cloud's Rest, packed up camp, and made our way down the Mist Trail to the Valley floor. On the way down we passed by Vernal Falls and the boys quickly learned why this section of the John Muir Trail was called the Mist Trail. After some time at the gift shop, we shuttled to the Jeep up at Glacier Point and made our way back to San Francisco, narrowly dodging a rainstorm.

The Colby guys spent the entire week working from a VRBO down near Fisherman's Wharf and we enjoyed some mid-week adventures like Mt. Tam and Sausalito. That weekend we took a day trip to Napa for some wine tasting and took in a Giants baseball game on Sunday before their flights back to Boston.