Surviving Halfdome and the Yosemite crowds

It was a long drive into Yosemite from Big Sur, with some stops at local produce stands and wineries along the way. But we made it. It was around 8pm when Shannon and I made it to Wowona and the Wowona Lodge inside the park, and we decided to stop driving for the day. There was plenty of parking in the area , and washrooms. Sore and stiff from being stuck in the car, we got out and stetched our legs, and made our way over to the lodge. Just like all the lodges I've encountered in National Parks on this trip, this one was another gorgeous and luxurious respite in the middle of the wilderness. I had a headache so we just grabbed some tea inside and decompressed as we listened to the live piano, the best I could ask for. Early the next morning, we took off to finish our drive into the Valley and to try to snag a first-come-first-serve campsite at camp 4. At about 8 am, crowds still weren't bad... until we made it to the campground. There, we encountered a huge line at the registration. I stood in the back while Shannon explored the line and talked to those waiting. We found out that people had literally been waiting in this line for DAYS to try to get themselves a campsite. What a broken system. We weren't going to waste our time with something as futile as that, and we all the more thankful for the bed in the back of the SUV. We went to find a spot to park and begin our day.

Our first stop was the wilderness office where we hoped to grab ourselves a permit to hike Halfdome, the iconic summit of Yosemite. It was only at the office that we found out the process wasn't as easy as we had thought. It turns out people sign up for permits months in advance, and permits are allocated based on a lottery system where about 40% of those who applied get one. A let down for sure. Luckily, we discovered another option that worked around this system, which was to apply for a backcrountry camping permit for the campsite at the base of Halfdome, and this would allow us to make the hike. We put our names on a list for this, and were told to return at 11am to find out if we would get one. With our short amount of time before we had to return, we made a bit of a run to see Yosemite Falls. Neither of us knew what to expect, but these falls were definitely awe inspiring to see. Even with the crowds already forming at its base, it was stupendous.

Then it was back to the wilderness office, where we stood in another crowd of hopeful backcountry campers and listened to a half hour lecture by a ranger about where to make fires, how to deal with bears, where to set up camp, etc etc. It was a bit of strange system because we didn't yet know if we would have a permit or not! Then, they very slowly went through the list of names. A name would be called out, and the ranger would lead the person into the office where they would take about 10 minutes to sort out the permit. Then the next name would be called. We were #16 on the list... how long was this going to take? Eventually things sped up, and it probably only took us about an hour to find out that, congrats, we had earned ourselves a couple permits! It was all worth it. Little did they know we didn't even plan to do any backcountry camping: we planned to hike to the summit and back in a day. The permit was all we needed! Now we were free to make the most of our day. We took the crowded shuttle around the park and did a bit of hiking in the valley. I don't think either of us were particularly impressed with the park at this point. At one time, we were stuck at a crowded shuttle stop and had to wait for FOUR packed shuttles to drive by before we got a spot on one. It was all pretty wild, a kind of wilderness amusement park or something. We then attempted to get back in our car in the afternoon to drive up to Glacier Point, only to get stuck in standstill traffic for about an hour. Would we even make it to the point before sunset? Thankfully we did, but just. The views were enough to reward us for our efforts.

We found another parking lot in the valley to stay in overnight, and woke up at dawn the next day to attempt Halfdome. It would be a 25km hike with a whopping nearly 5000 ft elevation gain, taking the average hiker 10-12 hrs to accomplish. We took off from Halfdome Village, and it was a nearly instantanious start to the climb. Passing Vernal Falls and later Nevada Falls, it was a gorgeous hike the entire way. About midway, we passed Little Yosemite Valley Campground, where we could have set up camp if we wanted. Then it was another few thousand feet to the summit.

As we neared the rocky peak, the trail turned to steep steps, and eventually cables were required to make the final summit up the rock face. It definitely looked pretty daunting, and some people chose to sit out the final ascent. We sucked it up and tackled the cables. It was a slow ascent as you made your way around people crawling down, and used a lot of upper body strength to pull yourself up. But we made it, and the 360 views around the park were breathtaking!

It was a fairly uneventful trip back down. The cables took nearly an hour to descend (what should have taken 10 minutes) due to the crowd of people trying to go both ways. You were stuck going at the pace of the slowest/most fearful person in the chain. We made it back to Halfdome village around 6pm, paid for some showers, and then trudged ourselves over to the restaurant for pasta and beer. We were definitely thankful for the luxury of not having to cook our own dinner that night! Then we were asleep before 9pm.

The next morning we squeezed in a quick hike around Mirror Lake Trail, and then took off from the park before the crowds moved in. We would be heading back to San Fran for the night, from where Shannon was taking off, and I'd be heading out to Lake Tahoe the next morning. Thanks friends! -Amanda