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By Jacob
By Jacob
In my research on Yosemite National Park I had discovered the most popular trail in Yosemite. It is called the Mist Trail. It is popular for a good reason, the trail passes by two beautiful waterfalls. Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls. The trail was immediately put on my list as a must do for our time in Yosemite. I planned it for the first full day in Yosemite as part of our day in the valley.
When COVID-19 hit the U.S, Yosemite National Park instituted a reservation system. Only a certain amount of vehicles would be allowed in the park for a day. You could book 80% of reservations the day they were released to the public, the last 20% were released two days before the date of arrival. Getting a reservation would get you seven days in the park. You would also have to validate your reservation by going into the park on the day of your reservation. At the entrance gate they gave us a pink slip with the color of a car and part of our license plate. We put it on the dashboard so rangers in the park knew we were valid. This limited the number of people that we would be on the Mist Trail.
We arrived in Yosemite the day after we visited Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. We visited the valley and I figured out where the trailhead was and the best way to get there. The next morning we arrived at the park and headed for Yosemite Valley. We followed the one way road to a sign that indicated parking for the Mist Trail. We were right by the Curry Village at the base of the trailhead. Something to note is that the villages in Yosemite Valley can be kind of confusing. It took us a while to find things like the visitor centers and gift shops. We found a map and headed east past a large tent village. We found out quickly that the trailhead is a long ways from the parking lot, .85 miles to be exact, to the trail so our hike had already begun.
We reached the trailhead and began our hike. We discovered that the trail would not be straight out and back like I thought it was going to be. They would not let you go down the granite stairs by Vernal Falls since there was no room for social distancing. You had to follow the trail up further to get to the John Muir trail where you could head back towards the Mist Trail closer to the valley and bypass the stairs. We headed up a steep uphill for a while following the Merced River. The nice thing about this trail is that since it is so popular the trail is paved for most of the way up to Vernal Falls. Eventually, we reach a crossing of the river with a nice bridge. On the other side of the bridge is a convenient water filling station. From the bridge I got my first view of Vernal Falls. By this point I was hiking ahead of the rest of the family. All my running means that I move pretty fast on the trails.
I continued up the trail, still uphill, towards Vernal Falls. About half way between the bridge and falls I saw where the John Muir Trail meets with the Mist Trail. The John Muir Trail goes all the way to Mount Whitney in Sequoia National Park. This is where I would come back and bypass the stairs up to Vernal Falls. A little further up the trail we got a close up of Vernal Falls. It was a beautiful sight. The falls drops 318 ft and sprays a mist over the trail. Hence the name the Mist Trail. The mist felt great and created a cool place to rest.
Vernal Falls
The next part of the trail is the hardest section. It was the hardest part of any of the hikes we had done on our 2020 Vacation. It is nearly straight up along steep tall granite stairs. A sign near the bottom of the stairs says .3 miles to the top of Vernal Falls where there is a viewing platform. I started to ascend the stairs behind a slow hiker who would not let me pass. Finally, I got around him and kept up the climb. Another thing to note is that you have been going uphill pretty much the whole time and at higher elevation. I was starting to run out of breath. I made it to the top and saw that the trail goes back down. I saw that the trail climbed higher than the waterfall then you have to go down this somewhat slippery granite rock down to the brink of the waterfall.
I sat at the top of the waterfall for a while waiting for the rest of the family to make it to the granite staircase and up to the top of the waterfall. When they made it up we took some pictures and found a shady spot under the trees to eat some lunch. We were under constant attack from squirrels. It was obvious that hikers liked to feed the squirrels which has led them to change their behavior and see humans as a source of food. I had to use my hiking stick to poke at the squirrels to keep them away. Public service announcement: do not feed wildlife. It changes their behavior, the whole point of national parks is to keep them wild. I can not tell you how much it gets on my nerves when I see kids feeding animals and their parents paying no attention. One last time, do not feed wildlife.
Top of Vernal Falls
We sat and ate our lunch by the Emerald Pool where we could see a little bit of the next waterfall, Nevada Falls. We watched hikers swim in the Emerald Pool right by the no swimming sign. I gave a lot of dirty looks that day. Just up from the top of Vernal Falls is the trail to get to the John Muir Trail, the only way down until 4 p.m. My parents split off while my brother and I continued towards Nevada Falls. We agreed we would meet them back at the Mist Trail at the water station. We continued through trees for a while then we were able to get our first close up of Nevada Falls.
Nevada Falls
We crossed the Merced River and were on the east side of the river again. We headed up hundreds of more stairs, not nearly as steep as the Vernal Falls stairs. Nevada Falls is much taller than Vernal Falls, Nevada is 594 ft tall. We were going up the side of a rock face until we finally reached the top of the falls. From the top we could see down the area we had just come up all the way to Yosemite Falls. We had gained 2,000 ft and were 4.5 miles from the car. We did not stay long as we could see and hear a storm coming in the distance.
We also saw the trail that leads to the top of Half Dome. The massive rock formation that has a chain section leading up the side. Not something to do if you are afraid of heights. Now we were on the John Muir trail on our way downhill towards the valley. By this point we have multiple problems. I had run out of water and we had a storm on the way so we needed to get down quickly. We had crossed the Merced River again just above the brink of Nevada falls and were on the west side of the falls. We turned around and realized that we had a great vantage point of the waterfall. The side that you always see pictures of.
Top of Nevada Falls
West View of Nevada Falls
We continued down and down through an endless amount of switchbacks. We did not see as many hikers on our trip up to and down from Nevada Falls. Most hikers seem to turn around at the bottom or top of Vernal Falls and do not venture any further. It was much more peaceful in the Nevada Falls section of the park. By this point we were getting close to 6 miles in and I was getting more and more irritated because I did not have any water to drink. The storm was getting ever closer and it seems we were making little progress. Finally, we made it to the mist trail below Vernal Falls and made it to the water station. Our parents said we made excellent time, they had only been sitting there for 15 minutes, they had taken the shorter route while my brother and I had a several mile detour. We filled up our water bottles and continued down to the trailhead. 1.6 miles from the bridge.
We made it back to the trailhead and saw that the storm had stalled over the Sierra Nevada mountains and would likely just stay there. As we got closer to the trailhead and parking lot we could see all the ill prepared hikers that could not possibly make it farther than the bridge. We made it back to the tent city and to the car. All counted my brother and I had hiked 9 miles total that day.
This is one of my favorite trails in the national parks system and my favorite that we did in Yosemite. The trail was a challenge but in one of the most beautiful places on earth. We saw two beautiful waterfalls, we were surrounded by granite cliffs on both sides and always near the majestic Merced River. I would recommend this hike to anyone who can do it. You can go as little or as far as you want and still get some fantastic views. To learn more about Yosemite and other trails be sure to visit our Yosemite National Park page on our blog. I hope you enjoyed my account of the Mist Trail.
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