My backpacking summer has truly fallen short. But I accomplished three Yosemite trips: One with my daughter to Little Yosemite Valley (LYV), one day hike of Half Dome, and then last weekend, I took my daughter on her first backpack trip and first Half Dome ascent. She did really well for a ten-year-old!
Over the last few years, she has shown some affinity for rock climbing, so I thought she would be able to take on the cables. We tried the day hike to LYV as a trial run. I wanted to show her where we would be camping, and I wanted to make sure she was up for climbing and descending the Mist Trail. She did the first very well, in fact, I took her on a detour descending the north side of Liberty Cap, an off-trail approach to the Half Dome Snake Dike route. It was a little more rugged than I'd remembered, but she made it through ok.
So for this trip, one of the biggest hurdles was to get a permit to camp in LYV, and also for the Half Dome cables. Since I live a 2-hour drive from Yosemite Valley, I drove up early on Friday morning to get into the walk-in line. There are 4 walk-in permits available for a Glacier Point (GP) start, and 10 from Happy Isles. As it turns out, I didn't need to get there by 8 AM for the 11 AM process. I would have been fine walking up at 11. But I wasn't taking any chances. Anyway, I got our permits, arranged to use the electric car charging station by the Ahwahnee Hotel (did that both Friday and Saturday for the Chevy Volt), and purchased tickets to ride the tour bus from Yosemite Lodge up to Glacier Point on Saturday. ...then drove home.
On Saturday, we drove to the Ahwahnee Hotel, parked the car, hopped the shuttle for Yosemite Lodge, and were ready to ride the 10:30 bus with 10 minutes to spare. Then the hour-long ride took us to GP. We were ready to go!
We took a bunch of pictures at GP, ate our lunch in the GP store, and finally were ready to hike about 1 PM.
We took the Panorama Trail, crossing Illilouette Creek, visited Nevada Fall, then LYV. About 6 miles the first day, descending 1200', climbing about 700'. Her pack held about 10 lbs.
We hiked with a couple from Switzerland down to Illilouette and told them we were going to try out the water slide we had tried in previous years. Here the best video:
Next morning we left camp about 8:30. We made the top about noon. Enjoying lemonade:
Cables were just fine for her:
Cable Girl
Showing off
I gave her a new Yosemite/Half Dome T-shirt on the top. It reads "Rugged and Durable"
Top of the world!
It took us 6 hours to descend, stopping in LYV to pick up our camp and backpacks. I took her down a shortcut between the sub-dome and LYV, but that was no fun for her: low-top shoes and too many slippery pine needles on the slope.
One proud kid.
And tired, too. It was dark, we're on the shuttle on the way to pick up the car.
Most food places in the Valley were closed, there was an hour-long line for pizza in Curry Village. We picked up food in the Curry Village Market, ate in the car as we headed home. After taking a little Dramamine for the road and she was out cold. We got home at 10 PM, I carried her to bed. Woke up at 5 AM wondering why she was still dressed and dirty. She took a shower and went back to bed. Off to school at 8. I was dragging at my job. What a weekend!
Hi Steve, Great pics, I appreciate your post having done something similar with my own son (19) and another father/ son combo on a male bonding trip. One thing intrigues me, how did you get those shots from the side of the cables on half dome. Telescoping selfie stick??
There is a ledge there, about half way up the cables. It is only a couple of inches high, but if you lean against the rock (note it is about 45 degrees, so not that vertical), and use the ledge, you can walk out on the slope maybe 8-10 feet.
I have taken pictures at that spot on multiple trips, makes some awesome shots. In these two pictures you can see the ledge. It starts out not very high, but increases to a good 6", so it is quite secure.
Hi again Steve, My God that is gutsy! I well remember seeing that ledge but it never occurred to me to go out there. Also there was light rain on the dome when we were there. When we were celebrating the accomplishment later that night over dinner at Tenaya Lodge, my son and his mate were amusing themselves by searching online for deaths on Halfdome!
Well, there are far more deaths on Whitney than on Half Dome. ...as you well know, now, after last weekend! The others rescued up on top were fortunate they got to the hut. Otherwise it would have been a terrible story.
There is a ledge there, about half way up the cables. It is only a couple of inches high, but if you lean against the rock (note it is about 45 degrees, so not that vertical), and use the ledge, you can walk out on the slope maybe 8-10 feet.
