Half Dome

By far the coolest/most intense thing we did in Yosemite was the 17-mile Half Dome hike. We started at about 8:00am and finished at about 7:45 that evening. We packed in 4 liters of water each and needed every drop! During the 6 miles up, we gained about 4800 feet in elevation It was one of the most physically challenging things I've ever done, although, I have to say, at the end of the day, I felt better than I did after the half-marathon we ran in Nashville back in April! Daniel thought I was crazy for preferring to hike uphill (mostly) for 17 miles rather than run a relatively flat 13.1!
Anyway, here are some pics from the day:

We started out at Happy Isles



The first 1.7 miles was via the Vernal Falls Mist Trail. It was really beautiful, but we were totally soaked by the time we got to the top!



The tired hikers (and we still had 8 hours to go!)



A view of Nevada Falls




Only 2 miles to go!!! (Little did we know that the last two miles would be practically straight up and take us about 3 hours!)


Our first view of snow


At this point in the hike, I saw that big dome and thought, "we're going to scale the back of that!!??" It looked a whole lot steeper than the picture seems to convey now!


A view from the top. Since I didn't have a death wish, I did NOT climb the last 400 feet, which involves cables, the use of gloves, and more guts than I plan to ever have. Daniel, my dad, and Derek did, however, climb up the cables. Check out this video to experience it for yourself. I PROMISE it is steeper and scarier than it looks!



A tentative-looking Dan hanging out by the snow patch on top:


Another view of the cables from the bottom:


Finally! We get to start heading down-hill for the way home!