I think day trips to the mountains are the best. You get a good breakfast at home, then leave well before sunrise. There’s no traffic, no line to get into the park, and no hunting for parking. You have plenty of time to explore, then you get to sleep in your own comfy bed at the end of the day. Yeah!

I’ve mentioned my meteorologist friend Haley Clawson before. She’s the chief at KESQ in Palm Springs. She had never been to Yosemite, which should be a crime for California residents. We set a date in June, and she drove up to partake in one of my crazy day trips.

She got into town on a Friday, and we started the weekend off right with a session at the local climbing gym, Metalmark. Haley just got her first pair of climbing shoes, so they needed to get broken in. The Clovis Farmer’s Market and dinner at Bobby Salazars rounded out the evening.

We got up at 2 AM Saturday (after only 4 hours of sleep), had a bagel and some coffee, and headed out the door.

First stop was a good sunrise view. We made it to Glacier Point nice and early and joined about 30 others for the early light show.

Next was Taft Point. I had never hiked out there, so this was new to me! It’s a short 2 mile hike through the woods, then you’re greeted with dizzying drop offs down to the Valley. The slackline was setup here, but we weren’t lucky enough to see anyone using it.

We had a lot of Valley destinations to get to, so off we went.

We oooh’d and aaaaah’d at Tunnel View, then drove down and parked on Southside Dr. by the chapel. Our day would end at Yosemite Falls, but I didn’t want to waste time driving over there and trying to find parking that late in the morning.

We walked the 3 or 4 miles to El Capitan meadow to watch climbers. I love hunting for them. You can pretty much always find multiple climbers on the Nose. Just look for the boot-shaped flake, and you’ll likely see mini humans!

We caught the bus back to the main part of the Valley to save time, as it was already lunch hour.

We switched bus lines and rode into Happy Isles. She wanted to see waterfalls, so off to Vernal we went!

The hike to Vernal is harder than people think. I think the pavement gives people a false sense of security that it will be easy going. It’s hard. It’s very steep. It’s narrow next to a cliff. And it’s the longest .8 miles of your life to the footbridge.

We hiked up most of the trail to get a good view of the fall. The mist was extremely welcoming! Our hair, however, felt differently.

After the refreshing falls, we headed back downhill toward the Valley. It was pizza deck time.

The line for the bus was insane, and it made more sense to walk the half mile back to Half Dome Village.

We got a small pizza to split, which really means it’s a small pizza. Like, tiny. We were still hungry, so we stopped by the village store for junk food and wine.

Our final adventure of the day was a big one. Upper Yosemite Falls to either Eagle Peak or Yosemite Point to watch the sunset colors light up Half Dome.

By the way, we had already walked almost 15 miles by this point in the day.

We started up the steep Upper Falls trail, and our pace slowed down. We were really starting to feel the lack of sleep, early morning, many miles, and steep terrain. Well, I was, anyway.

We made it to Columbia Rock, and took in the view. Worse case, we’d bail and watch the sunset colors from there.

We kept heading up, and got less and less motivated. We arrived at the downhill section, which is the last good view of the falls before you start climbing the never-ending switchbacks to the top.

We considered how long it took us to go the first mile, and how sunset time was only an hour away. We still had 3 miles to Yosemite Point, and Eagle Peak was farther and no longer an option. We knew we’d lose the view on the switchbacks, so if we hiked slower, we’d miss everything.

We decided against going farther up the trail and headed back to Columbia Rock. We set up shop there, had our junk food, our plastic mini bottle of wine, and waited.

Pro tip…they sell the single serve wines in the Village store for ~$1.50. Many buildings around the Valley do not allow alcohol, but you CAN have open containers in the wilderness. No glass, of course. And please be responsible. Pack it in, pack it out.

High cirrus clouds soon moved in front of the sun. This filtered out some of the sunlight so it didn’t light up Half Dome. It was an anticlimactic color show and we were getting a little chilly, so we headed down the trail.

About 20 minutes after sunset, we caught a glimpse of Half Dome through the trees. The sky had a few purple and pink hues, so all was not lost. We snapped a few pics, whipped out our headlamps, and continued on.

It’s amazing how fast activity in the Valley dies as soon as the sun sets. It’s also amazing how dark it is, even with headlamps.

We could barely find the boardwalk trail that cuts across the Valley from Northside to Southside Dr.

We also didn’t encounter a single human from the trailhead to the car.

What we did encounter, though, were multiple sets of glowing eyes reflecting our headlamps. Critters hide so well during the day, you’d never know they were in the median the whole time! I assume they were deer, and not big cats stalking us.

We made it back to the car around 9:15 PM. Even without finishing the final hike, our mileage was 18.5 miles.

We headed back up to Tunnel View to spot climber’s headlamps on El Cap and to take in the silhouette of the other granite formations.

We were tired and had almost 2 hours of driving ahead. Dang it.

I made it out of the park awake, but I felt very tired south of Fish Camp. I drove to a pullout and we both took a nice power nap.

30 minutes later, we were on the road again, and got back to Fresno around midnight. Almost 24 hours for a day trip, nice!

Check out this video recap Haley put together of the day:

We slept in on Sunday and Haley experienced my famous weekend waffles. With Wallace. Since there aren’t too many lakes in Palm Springs, we took advantage of being near lakes here and took my raft to Millerton. We relaxed for a few hours on the water and just had girl talk.

 

Back in town, we did a little tour of downtown. Haley got a photo in front of the “Fresno” mural by the downtown Walgreens. We then headed to Hop PK, and finished the tour at Chuckchansi and Tioga Sequoia.

We have to get Haley back up here again. She wants to go up Half Dome, finish Yosemite Falls, and she HAS to go over Tioga Pass.

I think we covered a lot of ground in two days! What a fantastic weekend, and I can’t wait for another adventure together!

Let me know in the comments below what your favorite spots are to show out of town guests!