There were 8 in our party; one car included; Todd, Ellen and their lovely daughters Amy and Courtney while the other car had; Carolyn , Don, MaryEllen, and Vivian. We all gathered up on Friday night at Curry Village, after wandering around looking for OUR tent (they all look alike) and had a few glasses to celebrate the occasion, making plans and still agreeing to disagree about what time to start (5am seemed fine to me) we finally agreed on 6:30. Then some of us went off to have BIG beers at the Curry Village Pub.

Right on time at 6:30am Saturday morning we were tromping down the road to Happy Isles to start our trek (in the dark)… it was quite a sight to see us brave souls looking everywhere watching for bears???? Nah, just kidding. We had Don, and he was dressed up in his kilt, so we knew we were safe.

Walking along looking at the incredibly high walls of granite, feeling fresh and happy, the air was cool, the trees were yellow and orange. It was a good beginning. Then, the stairs by Vernal Falls (oh my). I was thinking to myself, why am I hiking with my 25 year old daughter who thinks its fun to run up the steps… must be some sort of penance from a previous hike. This was the first challenge of the morning, but we went up them with a smile watching the water rush about. The sky was just starting to turn blue and we could still see the full moon up above the canyon. Everyone in our group was clicking away with their cameras. Soon we were at Nevada Falls, then we were walking through the never ending switchbacks, occasionally we would catch a glimpse of Half Dome and the cables… gee they seem so tiny from down here. The grand stair case was daunting (did a giant make these steps or what), I noticed that the altitude was starting to hit me a little, I was slowing down, or was I just exhausted? The group all reassembled at the cables. We started up the cables only to be stuck in a huge traffic jam. Our gloves weren't quite right and we were exchanging gloves trying to get more traction out of them… later Todd saved the day and wrapped our gloves with his "horse tape" which really helped when gripping the cable. Finally, we made it to the top. Its huge up there with views that were absolutely incredible. I took a little nap. whew. After about an hour and a half we started back down. We were all back at Curry Village by 6:30 or so…showering, having champagne (thank you MaryEllen), and swapping stories… it was all so fun that we almost missed dinner! The next morning we all met at the Ahwahnee for brunch (oh ya, I had 5 plates), then we touristed about looking in stores, trying to find the right t-shirt to mark the occasion and sadly off we went back home with wonderful memories to savor forever. (Well, actually the other car had a bunch of car trouble and they ended up taking a train/bus home… thank god they had wine to sustain them… but even they were chipper and giggled when they shared their stories)

This should be an annual event to Yosemite… so till next year!

Ellen.