Mist Trail to Vernal Fall

Vernal Fall

Mist Trail (the easy part)

Today's visit to Yosemite included a beautiful walk along the Mist Trail to Vernal Fall.  Don't let that name "Mist" get lost in your thoughts.  We'll revisit it in a minute.  But first, some history:

When we were here in 1999 with Doug and Katie, we discussed a hike to Nevada Fall, but chose to do something else due to the hike's length and our limited time in Yosemite Natl Park.  Had I known then what I know now, we may have chosen to do the walk we did today.  Wasn't aware Vernal Fall was along the way.

Fast forward to today.  If you'll revisit our Sunday's blog post, you'll see that Vernal Fall is the lower of the Nevada / Vernal Falls drainage into the Merced River.  The Mist Trail takes you for a walk to a foot bridge that crosses below Vernal Fall.  A little further up the Mist Trail the Muir Trail breaks off.  From this point it's a steep climb into the Vernal Fall mist (hence the "Mist Trail" name) up to the top of Vernal Fall.  We didn't make it to the top.  

Illilouette Fall

The mist was so thick you couldn't use your camera.  The trail was wet. Puddles of water were all along the climb up the trail and in a sense, the trail was becoming part of the fall itself as water constantly ran down the rock stairs of the trail.  A rainbow followed us all along the upper trail (see last picture).  Speaking of those rock stairs: The NPS and its volunteers have build an outstanding trail to walk to the top of Vernal Fall.  Donna and I will try it again when we can visit in a drier time of the year.

On the mundane side, we've removed the air bags from the truck suspension.  As far as we can tell, there's no change in the ride quality empty or with the trailer attached.  Our nagging tire leak on the trailer turned out to be a bad valve stem.

Vernal Fall (from the foot bridge)

 One of the changes we made when moving into the trailer was that if you bought something - say a new shirt - then a piece of clothing had to "leave" the trailer.  In this way, you didn't load up the trailer like we had our houses.  Apparently, things working on the trailer follow the same rule.  After getting the tire repaired, our TV satellite antenna quit working.  Interestingly, to get replacement parts (not just warranty work - REPLACEMENT PARTS) you must provide proof of ownership.  Since it didn't come with a title, then you have to send in a copy of your original receipt.  Well...we don't have it.  Turns out the warranty card we sent in was really just to get us to sign up for emails from the antenna manufacturer (Winegard).  Definitely useless for warranty service.  So we call the store where we bought it to get a copy.  They find it on their computer, but can't print it in order to fax it to the antenna company so we can order any parts we need.  I guess the navy isn't the only organization with an incompetent IT system.

The Rainbow!!

Well, that's it for today's happenings and my daily rant.  Hope you found it entertaining!  David