A Yosemite Long Run

This past weekend, I went to Yosemite with my family! My parents and siblings all went. About 20 of us stayed at the Yosemite View Lodge Hotel, which is only a short distance from the entrance to the park. We went on a easy hike in the morning with the kids. In the afternoon, I went back into the park to go for my long run. I was still recovering from the American River 50 Mile from the previous week, so I was only planning to run around 15 miles.

I parked at the Bridalveil Falls parking lot and started my run through Yosemite Valley. It was a glorious run. I ran up past a ton of tourists on the Mist Trail, past waterfalls and all kinds of amazing sights. I did not want to run back the same way I had run, so I decided to hop on one of the free shuttles to get back to my car once I was done with my run. My run was not easy. There were some really steep sections that could only be hiked at a snail's pace. At 14.3 miles I ended my run and hopped onto a shuttle bus.

That would have been the perfect ending to a great run filled with gorgeous sites. But I made a mistake. It turns out the shuttles don't go as far as the Bridalveil Falls parking lot, where I parked! I was tired. I had already run for 3 hours. Usually another 5 miles after 14 would not be a problem, but I had no more fuel and it was getting dark and cold. Instead of hitting the more windy trails, I chose to run back on one of the main roads. It sucked. But I got it done. Here are some more pictures from the run! And one bonus picture of my family.