Yosemite valley float on the Merced River

With the main Kern running high, and Brush Creek dropping out, we decided to head north to the Merced River and Yosemite National Park. We knew the Merced was high but we were surprised to see it completely washed out - the class IV section had turned to big water class II. Not so with the upper Merced dropping out of the park - some of the gnarliest whitewater I've ever seen. It doesn't look like it, but we thought it was class 6 unrunnable for several miles.
Justin says it's good to go


I'd never been to Yosemite, so Justin and Andy (who had both been there many times) were stoked for me to see it). Traffic was bad in the valley, so we decided to risk (although the risk was imaginary it turns out) getting caught by the Park police and float the Merced through the valley, with the idea being that we could see the incredible scenery minus the tourists. It was one of the coolest floats I have ever done, and with no whitewater!

The views of Yosemite Falls were unbelieveable.



Our stress level was pretty high, as you can tell.
Half Dome was amazing.

As were the views of El Capitan. We thought we could make out climbers way way up the face, which apparently takes about 4 days to ascend.

Incredible views as we climbed up and out of the Valley.