Nov 1 - Yosemite National Park, California - Yosemite Valley, Vernal Falls trail

  We spent part of the morning up at the lodge, again, as Peter needed to get a blog post done.  Once the office opened, we then arranged to have the Propane tank on our RV filled.  Since the nights here have been down to 28 degrees, we have used a fair amount of propane on the heater.  Also, when the power was off, at this camp and the previous one, we had the refrigerator on propane as well.  So, we unhooked everything, and went over to the office for a propane fill.  Then, back to the campsite and re-level the RV, then re-hook-up everything.  Ugh!
   We had lunch, and took off for the Yosemite Valley again.  I'm getting pretty good at driving on the curvy, winding, steep, high roads.  We decided to hike the Vernal Falls trail, up to the only other waterfall with water in it.  The sign said 0.8 miles to the lower falls.  It a good 1/3 mile to get to the trail head, through the woods and over the fen. What it didn't say was that the 0.8 miles was ALL uphill, and at a steep grade at that.  The trail was paved, and there were LOTS of folks walking up it.  Peter and I did quite well, considering, taking it slow and easy all the way.  However, when we were mostly there, and thinking of saying that's enough, some folks coming back down the trail said "you still have a ways to go, to get to the 700 stairs that lead up to the lower falls".  At that, we decided we were ready to turn around.  It was a beautiful walk through woods, by the stream, on a beautiful day.  We drove over to the Village Store, and had a cup of coffee, then drove back to the RV.
   We got back at dusk, and found that our water wasn't working.  So, over to the closed office we went, and called the after-hours maintenance person.  He told us that the water was turned off on November 1st in the members section, where we were indeed camping.  I was very disturbed that no one had mentioned that the water would be turned off on our last day when we checked-in.  Or, that no one had come by to tell us they were turning it off.  Oh well.  At least we had a full fresh water tank, which we turned on and used.

Vernal Falls hiking trail photos: