Half Dome Full Moon Hike

Finally I hiked Half Dome! Not just a hike. It's a night hike! I went on the trip with ODC and Sierra Club group. At mid-night of July 18th and under a brilliant full moon, we departed from Curry Village at Yosemite Valley and I hiked to the summit of Half Dome at 5:50am and took the Mist trail back to valley around 1:30pm. It's a 17 miles hike (I still doubt about the accuracy of the distance) and it took me 13 hours! The goal is the summit and the idea is to witness the glorious sunrise. I pushed myself pretty hard on the last part to ensure I will summit in time to catch the sunrise. I made it ride on time! 5:50am! The sun rose behind the mountains. By the time it emerged out of the mountains, it's risen far from the horizon. We didn't get to witness the early stage of sunrise. Hiking out seems to take forever. I made through narrow stair trails along the Nevada Fall and Vernal Fall. The Fall is beautiful and the crowd is crazy! The Half Dome trail is so far the busiest trail I've ever hiked! The Fall part of the trail is very touristy. I stopped at river and took a nap and stopped at the fall to take some photos. I smelled the flowers along the way. It was around 1:30pm when I got back to super hot and stuffy tent cabin.
During the weekend trip, I stayed at a tent cabin in Curry Village at the Valley for 3 nights. We tried to get some sleep during the day time. The heat and noise made it hard to fall asleep in the tent. I found peace and breeze at the meadow near to the Merced river.
Yosemite is beautiful. The fun part of the trip was bike ride at valley. I would like to ride through the park again some day. The bad part of the trip? crowd and heat!
What matters is that I summitted the Half Dome ( Now I can cross out one more trail from my list) in time and I was there to witness the sunrise.

Channel Islands Excursion

Channel Islands NP consists of a 6 isolated islands. Each island is only accessiable by ferry. Seeking for a quiet beach getaway over July 4th, I got on the ferry in the early morning of July 4th, departing from Ventura harbor to Santa Rosa island for a day trip. It took ferry 3 hours to get to the island. On the way, I got to see a bunch of dolfins swimming by in the nice and neat lines. They dropped in and out of water in the exact same pace and tract. So neat! The ride was mostly pleasant except for the last half hour bumpy ride. Santa Rosa is well known for it's windy weather condition. During 4 hour stay on the island, I took a hike to Torrey Pines. The easy hike along flat Coastal Road allows hikers to view the pines and beaches. This is a prinstine and remote island surrounded by rugged coast lines and small sandy beaches. On the island, there are mainly grasslands and small canyons with small patches of forestry spread over. It was an easy 2-hour hike. I got back to the pier and got to hang out on the beach for a little while before boarding.
I camped at Mcgrath State Beach Park that night and went out for Italian dinner and hung out at the sand dune for firework.
I took a day trip to Santa Cruz on July 5th. Santa Cruz is the biggest island in the chain. The ferry stopped at Scorpion beach after an hour ride. I stepped off the boat and started a 15-mile exploratory hike. I started off with Cavern Point Loop trip. From Cavern Point, I followed the NorthBlufff Trail out to Potato Harbor. From Potato Harbor I took Potato Harbor Road and Scorpion Canyon Loop. Down into Scorpion Canyon and connected to Smugglers Cove trail to the beach. On the way back, I took Smuggers Road all the way and cut through Scorpion Canyone Loop. I reached from beach to cliff, from canyon back to beach again. I saw prinstine beaches, rugged mountains, lonely canyones, grass-covered hills, Anacapa (another island) in the distance and the long trails streching into canyons and cliffs. It's a cool feeling when I stood on the top of a hill, I saw the long trail that took me to where I was and realized that I've gone so far!
I fell asleep on the ferry on the way back. Got back to my civilized home from the islands that night.