Upper Yosemite Falls

Young girl rock climbing at Idaho's City of Rocks National Reserve.

Ask Me: Finding ‘More Complicated’ Family Adventures and Hiring Guides

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Mr. Lanza,

I am writing to ask your advice on how to find more complicated active outdoors experiences for my kids. I live on the East Coast (small town, coastal South Carolina), but as a family we’ve been camping and hiking in the North Carolina mountains for some time now. My children are six and seven, and we are starting to head west to the national parks now that they are older. I love your photos of mountain climbing, bouldering, etc. and I’m wondering if you have suggestions for good places to introduce these activities to kids. We do not have your experience, so I’m guessing we would find a guide and if you have thoughts on that I’d welcome it as well.

I appreciate any time or thoughts, I love your website.

Patty
Beaufort, SC

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Video: Hiking to Yosemite Valley Waterfalls

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By Michael Lanza

Yosemite Valley gets a bit wetter and louder at this time of year. With snow melting out of the mountains and swelling the park’s creeks and rivers, world-famous waterfalls begin roaring and raining heavy mist onto hikers on the Upper Yosemite Falls Trail, Mist Trail, and other paths. Whether you’ve been there to experience it or just hope to, live it vicariously through this video of dayhiking with my family to the top of America’s tallest waterfall, Upper Yosemite Falls, 2,425 feet above the valley floor, and to 317-foot Vernal Fall and 594-foot Nevada Fall.

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A view from the John Muir Trail of Half Dome, Liberty Cap, and Nevada Fall in Yosemite National Park.

The Magic of Hiking to Yosemite’s Waterfalls

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By Michael Lanza

My seven-year-old daughter, Alex, is engaged in some heavy intellectual lifting. I can tell by the way she stares quietly, her brow knitted in thought, at Upper Yosemite Falls. We’ve hiked for 90 minutes up a thousand vertical feet of hot, dusty trail above Yosemite Valley to stand below this curtain of water that plunges a sheer 1,430 feet off a cliff, ripping through the air with a sound like fighter jets buzzing us.

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