We had the day in Yosemite Valley today and got the chance to explore a bit. There are a few cafes and restaurants in the valley, as well as an art gallery and museum. From a couple of points, we could see the cliffs above the valley, but the real attraction was trying to get up to Half Dome.

We spent the day looking around the village, although Yosemite Valley is definitely meant to be a base for walks around the valley as there’s not an awful lot to see from the bottom. The most exciting stop was the wilderness center and they indicated that there could be permits available for Half Dome tomorrow morning.

The next morning, we queued up at the wilderness center from 7:30 am to get in at 8:00 am when they opened. Lucky for us, the rangers in the wilderness center had two Half Dome permits with campsites halfway up the climb in Little Yosemite Valley.

We bought supplies from the village store and headed off towards the Mist Trail early in the afternoon. The trail climbs out of the valley and gives us views over Yosemite, naturally it was packed shoulder to shoulder with people. We were fortunate to be there on a Thursday, meaning that the Mist Trail was open for us to walk to the base of Vernal Falls.

From the base of the falls, the trail makes a steep climb up narrow stairs to a lookout up top. Navigating the busy stairs with our packs was tricky, but we made it to the top eventually. From the top of the falls, we saw an amazing view down the valley.

We had another steep climb from Vernal Falls up to Nevada Falls. We took a side trail up to Clark Point on the JMT which got us away from the crowded Mist Trail, and also gave us a view down to the Vernal Falls far below.

Once up at Clark Point, the trail was relatively flat around to Nevada Falls. From Nevada Falls we got a final view down the Merced River and out into Yosemite Valley.

We crossed a bridge at the top of Nevada Falls, and from there it was only a mile to camp. The Little Yosemite Valley camp was actually huge, and dozens of people were camped here. Some were on their way to Half Dome, some on their way back, and many more were off on other adventures. We set up camp and cooked a fancy dinner; cheeseburgers with wagyu beef patties and fresh lettuce from the Yosemite Village store.