Determined to see Waterwheel Falls after my disappointing discovery last week, the time had come to retry in a day a hike that I and two others had done in three days…

This itinerary covered my one and only backpacking trip within the boundaries of Yosemite National Park (at least in the first 15 years that Julie and I have been waterfalling)…

I called the backcountry office to make sure they secured our permits in case we didn’t show up before 10am. It felt pretty good to have things in hand – or so I thought…