Our third day in the park was our first full day in the Valley. This would have been my day to do the Half Dome, but I unfortunately was unable to obtain a permit to do the hike. What we did instead was hike up the Mist Trail to the Vernal Falls and then ultimately the Nevada Falls. These were both pretty rigorous hikes, but the first portion of the Mist Trail was paved for the first mile or so. I was actually pretty amazed at how many people I saw who seemed unprepared for the hike, wearing sandals and tank tops.
We ultimately made it up to the Nevada Falls and there was a really nice pool at the top of the water fall to cool our feet off. On our hike down we decided to take the less steep John Muir Trail. This was brutal for Megan and the trip took quite a while down since it really bothered her knees.
We also visited the Awahanee Hotel, which is the beautiful hotel in the valley that everyone who has money stays at.
That evening we went on the stargazing tour, which put us on a bus from the valley back up to Glacier Point. Yes, I did go there a lot. The star gazing tour featured a great tour of the night sky. We were only able to stay until about 11:00, but you could just barely begin to see the Milky Way coming out. I wish we could have stayed until 2-3 AM though when the Milky Way really comes out.
You can see all of my photos over at Flickr