Yosemite Falls is a three-part system, dropping more than 2,400 feet from rim to valley. In spring, snowmelt turns it into a roaring, mist-filled force you can hear before you see. By late summer, it can nearly vanish — the same cliff, a completely different experience.

The trail will head though a forest on a gentle talus slope. Canyon live oak thrives here by wedging its roots into cracks, surviving where little else can. Mixed in are Douglas-fir and incense cedar — the same tree whose clean-cut wood ends up in pencils.

Amazing vista of the park and valley from this trail.

We'll walk through the Ahwahnee Meadow and learn about the crazy ideas that the National Park Service had of entertaining tourists in the past. Bears in the garbage as spectacle and intentionally firefalls every night.

We'll end up at the Ahwahnee Hotel - one of the most elegant and famous hotels in the world and a great place to grab a drink or a meal...or just rest.