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Back to our heroes…

John, Schmit-Dog, Paul and Jay need a rest day.  The Tuesday of our trip was planned for exactly that — rest.  But in typical mutant fashion, our organizer (John) views “rest” as relative.  What he considers “rest”, many would consider “I think I want to curl into a ball and die”…

Okay, so it wasn’t quite that bad.  As John writes in his journal, Tuesday was a planned “down” day.  “Down” meaning no plans for big, long treks, but “down” also because we ventured down into “the Touristy Valley” to see some sights.

First stop: Tuolomne Grove, home of a huge grove of Sequoia Trees.  We parked the RV and skipped our way about a mile down and into the grove to see some of these amazing trees.  How amazing?  Well, even though Smitty had experienced some powerful sights on our hikes to Hoffman and Vogelsang peaks, and even though he enjoyed views and vistas that most people only experience in books, when he looked up at his first Sequoia, the words “Holy Shit” escaped his lips for the first time on the whole trip.  Yeah…the trees are that incredible.

When most people think of “big trees”, they think “Red Woods”.  And they’d be right…in a sense.  Red Woods are taller than Sequoias, but when measured by volume, Sequoias are the largest living things on Earth.  The Largest Ever!  These big guys can grow to almost 380 feet with a 26 foot diameter trunk.  They come in at 6,100 tons.  Nothing bigger has ever lived on the face of our planet.  We’re talking “big”.

They’re also one of the oldest living things on the planet.  While the smaller bristlecone pine is older, Sequoias can be 3,000 years old while the Red Wood is a relatively young sprite (about 2,200 years old).  That’s 30 centuries folks…it’s hard to wrap your mind around that kind of age (especially when the thing we’re talking about is still living).

Here’s a young one –

So…you’re thinking “what…that doesn’t look so big.”  Right?  C’mon!  Be honest!  And you’re somewhat correct (even if you are a doubter).  The camera can’t capture the size so well.  So check this out:

That’s John standing inside of a Sequoia.  And here’s the rest of us (just for kicks):

They’re big trees!

Need another perspective?  How ’bout this shot of a fallen Sequoia –

Or John standing on it –

From the bottom side –

Want more amazing things to consider?  How old would you think the fallen tree might be?  How long has it been lying there?  I’ll leave the first question for you to ponder, but as to the second?  It’s probably been lying there for a few hundred years.  Wow, right?

After the Sequoias, we started down into Yosemite Valley.  The Valley is where most folks go when they think “Yosemite”.  Getting there is an experience in itself, and the views from the car as you look over the road sides at your pending death and destruction are more than enough for most folks to say “I been there”.  Plus, the views of the surrounding mountains and water falls are spectacular.  We figured we’d do the tourist thing…and get a look from below at the top of the very heights we planned to conquer over the next two days.

First, let’s talk waterfalls.  Most of us have been to Niagra, and we think Niagra Falls are some pretty big falls, right?  And they are!  But check out Yosemite Falls:

First, it’s important that everyone understand that we did not take this photo.  I’m sharing this to provide some perspective…this photo was snapped by someone else from the Yosemite Trail during the Spring months when the water flow is fast and furious (due to snow melt).  The water flow is just a little slower in July, and our shot was from the Valley floor:

Do the cars and the bus at the bottom of the photo give you a better idea of the size we’re talking about?  Yeah…it’s huge.  And the Falls that catch your eye are the Upper Falls.  Look lower and to the left.  Yep…there’s more…that’s the Lower Falls.

From the top of the Upper Falls to the bottom of the Lower Falls is 2,420 feet.  That makes Yosemite Falls the biggest in North America and the sixth largest in the world.  By comparison, the highest points of Niagra are 173 feet (Horseshoe, on the Canadian side).  If you think Niagra is beautiful and awesome (and it is), just imagine something as big as Yosemite.

We also hit Bridalveil Falls.  Here’s an anonymous photo (again for perspective — we did not take this):

The photographers took this photo from above.  We were at the base of the Falls.  Bridalveil measures 620 feet high — not a small guy!  And our view?  Well, we looked up –

Trust me — it’s huge.  What’s amazing is that sometimes, and usually during the summer months when the water flow is a bit slower, the wind can gust hard enough to temporarily stop the flow of water.  That’s what it looks like, anyway…what really happens is that the wind blows the water flow back up and over the top.  From below, it looks like the falls have stopped.  From above, you get really, really wet…

Want some big rocks?  Check this out: el Capitan, one of the most famous rock faces in the world…

There are actually two sides (or faces) of el Cap that meet at “the Nose”.  I have a ton of photos of el Cap, but I chose this one for a reason.  It’s actually one of the “closest” photos of one of the faces that we have.  That face is 3,000 feet from top to bottom.  And even though it’s big, you’d think that you’d be able to see someone hanging off the side of it, right?

Think again.  Look as hard as you want, but I doubt you’ll find the climbers that were on this face on this day.  Even with binoculars, they were near-impossible to find and make out.  John actually spoke to two groups of people who were lying in the field (from where this photo was taken) as they watched friends climb the face.  That’s how we knew there were climbers up there — their friends and families were keeping an eye on them from below.

el Cap is one of the favorite walls for all types of climbers.  The Nose was first climbed in 1958 — it took 47 days.  Today, free climbers (folks with no equipment) “speed climb” the Nose in hours.  The record is 2 hours 37 minutes.  One enterprising lunatic has actually climbed the Nose twice in one day (he had different partners for each climb).  Tommy Caldwell did it in 23 hours and 23 minutes.  “Did it”…as in climbed that 3,000 face twice…in under 24 hours.

How popular is el Cap?  Well, check out the back of our “base camp” (the RV):

The image on the back of the RV was taken from a point very near to where the RV is currently parked!

So!  What’s on the agenda for the final, phe-nom climb?  What lies ahead?  Check out this bad boy from the bottom…because you’re soon going to see a whole bunch of shots from the top.  Say hello to Half Dome –

And look very closely at the little outcropping on the top left.  That’s called “the Diving Board”.  Keep that in mind as we prep the next installment…

Yosemite Two

Yosemite — Mount Hoffman and early travels
Yosemite — a taste