Hiking Half Dome for the Second Time

Lloyd and I hiked Half Dome for the first time on his birthday last year - July 10, 2008. I absolutely fell in love with it and told him I couldn't wait to do it again. I love the views, the challenge of the hike, and being on top of Half Dome. We felt very fortunate that Bryce and Chareen agreed to watch all five of our kids while we hiked it this year. It can take anywhere from 10-12 hours to hike. We decided to leave early in the morning so we wouldn't be gone all day long. We woke up at 3:45 am and hit the trail at about 4:15. We had to wear head lamps since it was still really dark at that time of the morning. I loved hiking it the second time around because I knew what to expect and where I was going. I pushed Lloyd to go a little faster this time and he did an awesome job (the 5Ks he ran earlier in the year really paid off). We didn't take too many photos of our hike up there because we took a ton last year.

I got this one of Lloyd hiking up "Little Dome" which is probably the hardest part of the hike. It has tons of uphill, rocky stairs that are very steep. You know you're almost to the cables, but the steps keep going and going.
Here is a picture of the medal cables up to the top of Half Dome. You have to wear gloves to get a tight grip on the cables. There are wooden slats that you step on as you climb the cables. I am always praying that the slats are strong enough to hold me because my life is depending on them. Here's Lloyd beginning to come up the cables. Here I am going up the cables. Did I mention climbing up them is a great workout?
Here's our first photo on top of Half Dome. We got up there at around 9:15 am, so it took us about five hours to get to the top.

Here are and what is called the Half Dome "diving board." It's actually really scary walking around up there. The rocks can be slippery and look at that drop off the diving board!

Once I got to the top I indulged in a favorite treat of mine - a lemon muffin from Marie Callender's. I am experiencing complete bliss!

Lloyd got a picture of this marker on top of Half Dome put there by a geocacher.

There was actually some snow still on top of Half Dome!

Our self-portrait

You can see Yosemite valley and upper Yosemite falls in the background behind us.

Going down the cables is actually more scary than going up. I have a death grip on those cables the entire way done.

We spent about an hour on top of Half Dome and hiked down in about four hours. So the entire hike took around ten hours. We were really going fast on the way down. I had to go to the bathroom for about three miles so I was hiking very quickly to reach the bathroom. Unfortunately, there aren't any restrooms, hot tubs, refreshments stands, or escalators near Half Dome. Nonetheless, it was an another amazing experience the second time around. Lloyd and I were both very sore and couldn't walk really well for a couple days after the hike. We used muscles we didn't even know we had! I still look forward to the next time I get to hike Half dome again. I don't know when that will be. Lloyd would like to try hiking to the top of Mount Whitney. As our kids get older, the sky's the limit!