A Weekend in Yosemite

######For some reason, the first time I visited Yosemite I absolutely could not get around the pronunciation.

I mean, it really does look like it should be pronounced like Vegemite (Yaw-seh-mite) - does anyone else have this problem?? No?

Just me then.

To avoid confusion (mine) I actually had to start referring to it as “Yozzie” with my Australian friends.

With Americans I just avoided pronouncing it all together.

So, in 2010 I took a bus up the Big Sur from LA to San Francisco and on the way back I was lucky enough to stop at “Yozzie”. My stay was much too brief and I didn’t really get to explore. But the majesty and the spirit of this incredible place stayed with me and I’ve always wanted to go back.

"Yaw-seh-mite” (like vegemite)

And last weekend I did! With these two lovely people. Rob and my sister May, visiting from Sydney (so nice to have an excuse to be a tourist!)…

Rob and May at the start of Mist

With Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson making it to the top of El Capitan this week (I love this NPR interview with them from the summit last week!) - I thought I’d share some shots from our experience of this beautiful national park.

###Nevada Fall Trail
Heading out from the John Muir Trail-head carpark, we originally wanted to take the short Mist Trail but it was closed for Winter. So we took the longer Nevada Fall Trail instead.

Trails from John Muir Trail-head carpark

View from the Nevada Falls Trail

###Detour to Vernal Fall
About a mile in we found the rest of the way closed. So we took .6mi trail down to Vernal Falls.

Oh no! It's closed

Going down

Ice at the top of Vernal Fall - no swimming unfortunately…

No swimming

At the end of the trail was this beautiful piece of epicness, not too shabby!

View from the top of the Vernal Falls Trail

###Mist Trail
We then saw that the Mist Trail was indeed open - hmm, and also fricking steep! Kind of lucked out there.

Mist Trail from the top of the Vernal Falls Trail

We took it down instead…

The way down

for some more epic views…

View from the Nevada Falls Trail

and waterfall action (That’s snow at the bottom!)

The way down

###About 10km in total!

The Sierra Nevada that runs 400mi from Northern California south down the California/ Nevada state line is home to spiritual, majestic and awe-inspiring natural monuments like Lake Tahoe and Yosemite.

It is essential North California visiting!!

And Sierra Nevada means ‘Snowy Mountains’ in Spanish - so its like Australians were born to love it.

###Some details…

Yosemite National Park is a 3 to 4 hour drive from San Francisco
Entrance into the park is $USD20 per car (there are individual prices if you’re biking in)
We had a great experience in what I assume is someone’s holiday home via Airbnb. I love staying in a rented home - there are perks like tips on local brunch places and the occassional discovery of Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit in the linen closet (both pretty awesome with a few sneaky glasses of red #justsaying)

Our Airbnb (outside of the park itself) - which was soooooo cute. Laura Ingalls’ Little House in the Big Woods anyone?!

our Airbnb