Sacramento, CA

There is no elevation gain, the shuttle driver said. But Misty Trail along Mercer river started to climb shortly after it started and it went up and up. We were going to get to as far as the Vernal Fall Bridge for about a mile. Another two tenth of mile and I would've made it. But it became steeper and I turned around, again. So we only made to the Yosemite fall when we planned to hit all three -- we missed the Bridalveil fall too: the return traffic in the afternoon was too heavy and I didn't want to make a side trip while getting out of the park.

We started out the day by driving to Yosemite Lodge and parking the car there. I originally planned to park at the Vistor's Center, but the lot was under construction and we couldn't park there.  From Yosemite Lodge, we took the shuttle to Half Dome/CurryVillage. We marbled at the granite cliffs there and then circled back to Yosemite Fall, marking the Misty Trail to come back to after Yosemite Fall. In between we went out to El Capitan Crossing and took a shot of rock climbers. They weren't visible in naked eyes, but zoom lens caught them, barely.

On the way to Sacramento, the car's navigation took us through Jackson across Route 88 that I took about a million times before going to skiing at Kirkwood. And it was just like returning from skiing too, with the sky turned dark pink and the silhouette of Oak trees dotting the horizon. A scenery I've forgotten for 9 years. Will I be able to return to skiing this winter? I can only dream about it. We got to Sacramento after 8PM.  We had dinner at a Korean restaurant and were home at Rodeway Inn in West Sacramento after 10 PM.