wicked pic, might need to add that to my bucket list
That's sort of what I did. I've always been amazed at the pics of people standing at the edge of huge cliffs. I saw a picture of Half Dome back in June or so. By July I found a permit, and then I dropped a grand on plane tickets, reservations, shoes, backpack, etc.
That was one of my favorite hikes, and definitely my favorite in Yosemite. I remember it being 17.4 miles round trip though. How was the water volume of Vernal and Nevada falls? I found the cable route going up the backside of half dome the most interesting / fun part, all though being so close to the two waterfalls was pretty awesome to.
Yeah, I've read different lengths for the trail. It varies if you take the John Muir trail or the Mist Trail. Then factoring I took the long way through little yosemite valley, who knows. I'm sure it was in the 16-18 range.
Great trip. We like hiking too. How steep is the cable trail to the top? Is there an age and or size limit?
The cables are 600 yards at a 45 degree angle. It's literally a you slip, you die thing. They reccomend gloves to help grip the cables. I bought these thing gloves at walmart that had a nitrate coating on the palm area. They were AWESOME. My times going up and done had to be pretty quick. I had no fear with the amount of grip those gloves had.
The problem is getting a permit. If you google the cables of half dome, you'll see pics where they are like 600 people all going up the cables at the same time. They were having over 1000 a day making it to the top. To limit these number for saftey, you have to get a permit. It's only $1.50 through a govt website. Problem is the permits are so low-tech that scalpers are grabbing them all and reselling them for like $40-80 a piece.

Suppoedly Yosemite is working on that problem. All they have to do is make them nontransferable, and all would be fixed.
Thanks that was very cool you did a great job of bring us along.
Thanks. I would have loved to have taken more pics, but as I explained in the blog, I was set on getting up there, and getting back. I took a lot more photos/videos on my other hikes.
I'LL BE ADDING THAT ONE TO THE LIST...MY KIDS WOULD ENJOY SOMETHING LIKE THAT.
I was in Yosemite for 5 days and felt like I was about 10 year old the entire time. I think that park brings out the kid in anyone. YOu have to remember though, it's nature. There is no saftey nets, there isn't always warning signs, etc. It can be dangerous. When I was there, I think 18 people had died so far this year.
Why so far away from the edge, weak knees?
I'm not scared of heights, but I figured that was close enough.
next year for us....how long did it take you to hike it?
A little over 13 hours. Guess I wasn't as physically prepared as I thought.