For our final full day, one of our number managed to wrangle some young traveling nurses to join our crew. They were looking for a tougher hike, and incorrectly viewed us as knowing what we were doing due to our attire and demeanor of self-assuredness. Obviously, they were easily swayed, or they mostly thought Cameron was cute. How sweet.
We chose to do the Vernal / Nevada Falls hike to the Panorama hike to… Glacier Point, then down Four Mile trail back to the Valley floor. The total milage was 15.4 miles, with 4340 elevation gain. It was legitimately challenging, particularly as we grew close to Glacier Point. It was significant elevation gain over a short half mile or so. But, we kept a steady pace and it was absolutely gorgeous. The path of the trails linking together basically led the group from to the left (east) of Half Dome all the way around the Valley (and up to the top of the Valley ridge) to just across from El Capitan. It was quite the tour of Yosemite Valley. We saw all of the major sights from just about every angle. Some highlights below.
The next morning, we had breakfast at the Ahwahnee Hotel. The breakfast buffet was awesome. The highlight for me was a chorizo biscuits and gravy. Then, back to life. Back to reality.