Long Weekend: Yosemite Days 3 & 4

Day 3 in Yosemite, we hiked to Tuolumne Falls in the Tuolumne Meadows area. It was a pretty flat hike, roughly five miles in and five miles out. The views were great though. After feeling pretty grimy from the combination of sunscreen, sweat, and deet (the mossies were in peak season), I had to dunk my head in the river to clean off. Yes, the water was cold - thanks to the massive amount of snow in the Sierras this year.

The river around Tuloumne Falls

We then took the evening to relax around the campsite...and watch as a bear raced through the campsites next to us! We had heard the bear-scare sounds around the Tuolumne campgrounds pretty much every day. Mr. TPG and I were playing cards in the quietness of our campsite when we heard a voice call out, "bear coming your way!" We looked towards the voice and saw a blonde colored bear run into the campsite next to us, pause for a minute to look at the rangers following him, and then take off again in a dash up the hillside. I called him our "albino bear" for a while, until I learned that many black bears in Yosemite are actually blonde! Who knew.


Day 4 of our adventure, we decided to head down into the valley and do the popular/famed Vernal Falls & Nevada Falls "mist trail". That hike was more difficult than I thought it would be, considering it was paved all the way up to Vernal Falls. But Mr. TPG and I were booking it, sweating like crazy, and passing the impressive grandmas making their way up the steep hike. We relaxed more once we passed Vernal Falls and the crowds died down.

Top of Nevada Falls

At the top of Nevada Falls, we dipped our feet in the water and had a leisurely lunch before racing back down on the JMT (John Muir Trail). Racing, because we decided to head home a night early and we wanted to eat dinner at Bodie Mike's BBQ in Lee Vining, since the last time we passed through on the way to Mammoth it was still closed for the winter.

Racing back along Tioga Pass

The descent from Yosemite's eastern gate to Mono Lake/Lee Vining

Amazingly, we made it back to Carson around 9:30pm and didn't even unpack the car, but rather showered and crawled into bed. But our long weekend adventures didn't end there, because we partially headed back a day early so we could enjoy a lazy Monday up at Lake Tahoe...