Yosemite Valley's Mist Trail to Vernal and Nevada Falls

On the second day we split into two groups. Ian and Scott did a ridiculous 13 mile hike (4 mile straight up to glacier point) and the rest of us started the waterfall hike up to Nevada and Vernal Falls. This is actually two waterfalls.                        
This trail starts at the shuttle bus in the valley and you head up with the crowds the first stretch. Because it was raining (and had snowed overnight) it was pretty quiet. The trail starts paved through a forest. It climbs pretty good as I recalled coming down it was quite painful on my toes due to the asphalt.

After a short distance you get your first view of the bottom of the falls over Vernal Falls footbridge.   .75 miles.

There was still mist settling on the tops of the surrounding rocks.

As you go you can get glimpses of the falls further up. Everything was so green!

This sign tells us we are on part of the John Muir Trail. This is the same trail we were on yesterday about 20 miles higher up.

Now we start climbing the steep granite stairway (over 600 steps) and it becomes the mist trail. It is highly recommended you wear a raincoat, it is quite cold early in the morning.

Climbing Higher we see a rainbow in the mist of the falls.

Here is when we were pretty wet. But you dry off quickly as you climb higher.

They have railings on the really dangerous overhangs. It is beautiful.

Heres a view of the falls below as we have climbed above.

Almost to the top

Heres a view at the top of the falls. It kind of plateaus and this large rock is called Liberty cap 7,067 ft. The total mileage to Nevada Falls and back is 5.4 miles.

Looking down on the falls from above. You can really see the steep sides of the valley.

The trail we took down was different and part of the John Muir trail. It winds in and out of forest. 

A view of the top of Nevada Falls from the trail heading back down. We climbed 2,000 ft elevation gain.

Cathedral Lakes Trail- Yosemite National Park

The trailhead is accessible by the Tioga Road toTouloumne meadows. The road is closed in winter and usually opens late May. While we were visiting some days it closed because we got snow overnight. We tackled this trail the first day we were in Yosemite. The elevation when you start is 8500. The second lake gets up to 9600 feet.

The trail starts off among lots of rocks in a Pine forest.

As we continued on we ran into some snow.

There were pools of water from the snowmelt.

Here you can see a cairn someone has built to indicate the trail. Usually stones stacked up are trail markers.

The trail began to get challenging . We had to walk around puddles and still find the trail.

When the snow became constant we had to look for previous footsteps. This is when we strayed from the actual trail.

We realized we lost the trail. We decided to stop and have lunch.

This view from the trail shows fairview dome. Lots of snow still on the mountains.

We took a vote to head back. I hadn't loaded the map on my GPS because we had no wifi. Later we realized we were way off track.

So we never made it to Cathedral Lakes. It was a pretty hike to be so high in the mountains away from the crowds.

Eldorado Canyon Trail, Eldorado Canyon State Park

We originally were going to hike the Rattlesnake gulch Trail in the park but it was closed due to the September flood. We found another trail a bit further down the road. There was a new Visitor Center we hadn't seen before at the start of the Eldorado Canyon Trail. This park is located near the town of Boulder.

The beginning of the trail climbed quite a bit, lots of steps.

There was a nice view of the forest from the top. We could see the Amtrak train as it crossed in the mountain.

The trail goes around many rocks and boulders.

Here is the same view as above zoomed in with my camera. Can see downtown Denver.

The trail varies through trees and then some meadows. It was too early for wildflowers yet.

The trail eventually meets up with South Boulder Creek and the Walker Loop Trail.

This was a great spot to eat our lunch.

There was a bridge a little to the right. You could continue on the Walker Loop Trail . We chose to do the in and back for a total of 7 miles. 

Here's where the trails intersected.

There was a map of Walker Ranch too.

Heading back through the rocks.

Here you can see how the switchbacks to get back to the bottom. There were many more people coming up as we were going down.