· The West Valley Floor hike, which is 10,5 km and has 110 m elevation gain. This is a very nice and easy hike, where you can see what the Yosemite Valley can offer when it comes to steep cliffs and waterfalls.
· Happy Isles to the top of Nevada Falls hike, which is 11 km and has 650 m elevation gain. This hike is a bit harder, since the uphill is quite steep at times and it is slippery of all the water from the water falls. But it is sooooo beautiful! You get a close up look of 2 major waterfalls and you also get close to one of the major summits: the Half Dome.
When we decided to go to Yosemite this time, I immediately thought that the second hike above, to Nevada Falls, should be the first one we should do. The second one was a bit trickier to choose, but after I discussed the choices with Raimo (my brother) and Linus (my nephew) we decided to go for another tough hike: Upper Yosemite falls hike. This hike is nearly 12 km and the elevation gain is 800 m. I looked up some comments about the hike and the following was stated:
· “It's the mother of all stairmaster workouts, but with one-of-a-kind payoffs you won't get in a gym: panoramic views of Yosemite Valley”
· “Consider this question: would you climb the stairs all the way to the top of the Empire State Building? Well, in the course of your hike to Upper Yosemite Falls, you'll climb the equivalent of just over two Empire State Buildings.”
Raimo and Linus stated they were up for the challenge. Monica (my sister) decided to take it easy and to hike mostly in the valley.
Day 1 in Yosemite Raimo, Linus and I headed up to the Nevada Falls. It was even more beautiful this time, since it was a lot more water in the water falls this time. Linus and I took plenty of pictures, where you can see some of them below. But I noticed through the day that the hike wasn’t as appreciated by my family as I thought it would be. Raimo has some minor medical problems that he was concerned about and Linus didn’t like the slow pace that a hike like that requires.
In the evening Raimo and LInus told me that they rather hike with our sister in the valley the next day than join me for the tough hike. Since I had done the valley hike 2001, I decided to do the “mother of all stairmaster” on my own. And boy was I rewarded. It was a beautiful hike, with just the right kind of challenge. I enjoyed every minute of it and especially my lunch break with the amazing view of Yosemite Valley. Moments like that can only be described as “Life is GOOD!!”
It felt a bit strange to find out, on the way home, that the same morning I did my favorite hike the shooting and the bombing in Norway took place. They say you always remember where you were when you had bad news. I will always think of my beautiful hike in Yosemite with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Life is not fair.
Anyhow - Yosemite is still one of my favorite hiking places in the world and I hope you all will have the chance to see it sometimes.
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