Yosemite National Park - The day prior to the hike

Yosemite National Park has to be one of the most amazing places I have ever seen. It is beautiful, and I can definitely see why John Muir chose to bring President Teddy Rosevelt there in order to pitch the idea of starting the National Park system. If you have never visited, please put it on the list of places you should go before you die. And give yourself plenty of time to walk some of the trails (there are plenty that are not very challenging for those of you who aren't as excited about hiking as I am).

The first place we stopped was at Tuolomne Meadows. This was the place I would be stopping to eat and camp on day 3, so I was getting familiarized with the campground, store and restaurant. We also walked over to the Tuolomne River. 

After we left Tuolomne Meadows, we headed to our campground, but before we got there, we had to stop at the iconic Tunnel View stop. This is where you can get a great view of El Capitan and Half Dome. 

Once we left that, we headed up to Bridalveil Falls campground to set up camp, which was only about 5miles from the trailhead of which I was starting, Glacier Point. Then we headed back down into the valley to get my permit, eat dinner and walk around. 

When I walked up to the counter to get my permit, the ranger said that there was 1 permit left for the Happy Isle trail head. The Happy Isle trailhead is actually the place where most start the North Bound JMT hike. This would have been a great permit to have! 

Now remember, I was supposed to start at Glacier Point and already set up camp just 5 miles or so from that trailhead. That was about 45 minutes away from where the other trailhead was, which was also just a short walk from the permit station and the backpacker's campground. Dang! We should have got my permit first! Then we could have just stayed in the Valley. I started getting nervous, too,because starting at Happy Isle means a good climb up for the majority of that day's hike. If I start at Glacier Point, it is mostly downhill. I was mentally prepared to go downhill on my first day!!!! Not uphill! 

Oooooh, but to start at Happy Isle would mean doing the JMT from start to finish without missing any of the trail (I would have missed about 4 miles of the beginning of the trail by starting from Glacier Point). What to do? What to dooooo? 

Despite being mentally prepared to go downhill... Despite my stuff already being up by Glacier Point... I went ahead and took the Happy Isle permit. 

Ta da! 

(Yes, they spelled my name wrong.)

After I finally had my permit, we went to eat, stopped in at the visitor's center and Ansel Adams art gallery. Then we took a hike over to Yosemite Falls. It was a very low snow year and Cali has been in a drought, so the falls were not running very full at all. 

It was on this hike that I realized just how nervous I was. My anxiety was flaring something crazy. I was nearly shaking and I felt so nauseous. Tomorrow I would be starting my hike. Wow! 

It was time to move on and head back to camp. But instead of staying long, we drove up to Glacier Point and caught the end of the sunset and joined in on the stargazing class that a park ranger was giving. It was cool to learn about some of the constellations and see the Milky Way. 

With it nearing 11:00, and knowing I had a big day (3 weeks!) ahead of me, we went back to camp and called it a night. 

Tomorrow... 

Everything I had been waiting for and preparing for would be waiting for me when I woke up in the morning...