After everyone was sufficiently refreshed at Degnan’s Deli – or, at least as refreshed as the 92-degree temperatures would allow – we decided to hike over to Yosemite Falls, figuring we could catch the shuttle back to the main Yosemite Village parking lot. Based on the GPS, it looked like we could stroll through the employee housing complex on surface streets, trending northward to the northern portion of the Valley Loop trail, then following that west to the bridge below Lower Yosemite Fall – we had hiked this same route years ago when the kids were small and didn’t remember that much about it, but the GPS called out just 0.78 miles to the bridge, plus another half mile south to the bus stop. So, off we went, immediately leaving the crowds behind and making our way through the very quiet and peaceful neighborhood of brown, wood-frame houses. Passing some stables to our right, we ascended a short but steepish grade to a well-signed junction with the loop trail – turning left, we passed under black oak canopy through rolling terrain and granite gardens with views over the housing complex as we made our way west. Not long thereafter, we met the eastern access trail to the falls and again found ourselves in a throng of people, gently ascending the last 100 yards to the bridge. We started feeling spray from the fall well before seeing any water, and, rounding the last boulders before the bridge, were amazed at the amount of mist blowing south across the crowd gathered there – the force of the water was throwing off a strong breeze that whipped the spray downstream. Of all our visits here, none of us could remember seeing the fall this full – what in the past was an easy rock hop up to the fall’s pool would now be a drenching slog on slippery rock and probably quite cold and miserable, even on a warm day. We took pictures on the bridge and the boys scaled some short boulders before we started down the paved western access trail, eventually backtracking east a couple of hundred yards to our shuttle stop once we hit the main road. We were happy to find a nearly empty shuttle there, our first Valley visit of the trip complete – we’d be back in two days with Cassie and Chris.