Yosemite
Over the weekend I was able to make a trip up to Yosemite for some hiking with Chris (my old roommate). We set out from his house in Clovis around 7:30am and began hiking the Yosemite Falls trail at about 11:00am. Even though the hike was labeled as ‘very strenuous’, the selection of trails during winter is somewhat limited, so we decided to do it anyway.
We started off at a hare’s pace, but soon found out that speed was unnecessary. It rained most of the way up and was eventually replaced by snow, which was a real treat as Temecula doesn’t see snow. After ~2.5 hours of switchbacks we made it to the top. The view was not too great with all of the fog/clouds, but I was still able to enjoy it using a combination of the postcards from the visitor’s center and my imagination. I will most definitely be back in the summer or sometime with better weather.
Just to give an idea of the distance covered, take a look at the picture on the right. The trail began in the woods at bottom on the far left and ended at the peak on the top right. We also took a small detour at the upper falls to take in a nice view of the falls and valley. Though as mentioned above, the valley views were somewhat lacking. The total distance we hiked was 8.4 miles with an approximate 3000 foot elevation gain.
If you want to see any additional pictures, you can check them out here.