Columbia Rock and Vernal Falls

Hiking in Yosemite is HARD! You quickly realize that when you start in a magnificent valley squeezed between monstrous walls of granite thousands of feet high, the only direction to get where you are going is UP.

And up we went on two of the more challenging hikes our family has conquered. The first hike was a 1-mile (or so they say, felt like at least double that to us) 1000 ft elevation hike up dozens of switchbacks to stand on Columbia Rock and look out over the valley below.

Day 2, legs already sore, we opted for an earlier start to tackle the Vernal Falls hike. We knew this hike was listed as a 3.5 mile hike and thought we were mentally prepared for a longer time on the trail.

Our hike began on asphalt and though it was a pretty tough incline, the easy footing has us optimistic that this would be a manageable hike. Then, at a mile in, we were greeted by two rangers and a sign explaining that in order to get to the top of the falls, we would have to tackle 600 granite steps taking us 500 ft straight UP!