My Hiking: Hike the Upper Yosemite Fall Trail

Yosemite posses one of the most beatiful scenary in the world and particularly renowned for its spectacular waterfalls and giant rocks. Among them, the most famous one is the Yosemite Fall located in the central part of the valley. In the year 1992, I paid the first visit to the valley before heading up to the east coast to start my graduate study. At the time, I would like most visitors just seeing the scene without really feeling it. It all changed in the year 2004 after my friend Fred from Taiwan paid me a visit in the summer time. Fred is a active hiker and backpacker in Taiwan and he has great experience in hiking most of the high mountains (higher than 10,000 feet) in the island. Fred and I decided to visit Yosemite for two days. In the trip, I'd made my first attemt to hike the Upper Yosemite trail.

Upper Yosemite Fall trail: 7.3 miles roundtrip
Trailhead: (4,120 ft - 11 S 270626 4180489)
Yosemite Fall Overlook: (6,680 ft - 11 S 271160 4182047)
Elevation gain: 3,000 feet
Type: out-and-back
Class 1 hike

Below is the list of my hikes for the Upper Yosemite Fall trail:

Hike#1 - 10/15/2003

Result: Not completed

This is my first attempt to hike the upper Yosemite fall trail. My freind, Fred Chan, who visited from Taiwan hiked with me. Fred is a good hiker and he can easily reach the top without any problem. Unfortunately I was not in the best shape that day. Carrying with only one bottle of water we boldly started our hike in the extremely hot day. After 4 hours of struggle, out of gas and water, I decided to raise red flag and retreat. It was about one more hour to the top.

Hike#2 - 2/6/2006

Result: Reach the overlook successfully
Total time taken: 5:53
Up time taken: 3:00
Down time taken: 2:06

This was my first time to hike the Upper Yosemite Fall trail in the winter. It was a fun experience. I departed at 7:43 am in the morning and it took me 42 minutes to reach Columbia Rock. The higher I hiked, more snow I saw on the trail. Especially the water from the Yosemite Fall were all frosen. It was quite a view. Finally I reached the top of the valley and it was all covered with snow. I could only follow the footprint on snow to get to the overlook to the fall. This made my first successful hike to the Upper Yosemite Fall. After a short break, I hiked down to return to the trailhead.

Hike#3 - 7/5/2006

Result: Reach the overlook successfully
Total time taken: 5:15
Up time taken: 2:25
Down time taken: 1:42

Hike#4 - 1/16/2007

Result: Reach the overlook successfully
Total time taken: 4:30
Up time taken: 2:20
Down time taken: 1:30

Fred and I paid the second visit to Upper Yosemite Fall and we all reached the top successfully. Of course, Fred hiked much faster than I did. He was 30 minutes and 20 minutes ahead of me to hike up and down respectively. The top of the valley were all covered with snow.

Hike#5 - 2/29/2008

Result: Not completed
Up time taken: 2:06 (8:30 am - 10:36 am)

In the only date for every four years, I decided to hike the Upper Yosemite Fall trail. Unfortunatelly I was forced back due to the heavy snow condition. As seen in the picture, the trail was completely covered by snow. On the left, you might plummet into the bottom of the valley.

Hike#6 - 7/2/2008

Result: Reach the overlook successfully
Total time taken: 4:05 (2:38 pm - 4:43 pm)
Up time taken: 2:20
Down time taken: 1:20