Sunnyside Bench Trail (Upper Falls) and Ledge Trail (Glacier Point) - Yosemite Valley
(Cordada Rapel)

Yosemite Valley is usually so crowded that doing a hike without people seems impossible.... unless you go to Sunnyside Bench Trail or the Ledge Trail. Both are half-day hikes, mainly class II with some class III steps. Both are very steep, slippery at moments and exposed. Those trails feature lots of adrenaline for normal hikers and fun for rock climbers.

The Sunnyside Bench trail hikes up to the bottom right hand side of the Upper Falls, just below the base of Lost Arrow Spire. It took us 2 hours to climb up and about half that time to go down. We were surprised by a rattlesnake on our way up and a smaller stripped black/yellow Garter Snake on the way down.

The first half of the trail is quite flat and easy to follow but it is very exposed. You don't want to slip here. Later it becomes steepper and there are some class III steps also with a bit of exposure. The last part is mainly slabs and the main danger is the sand on top of them. The view from the top is beautiful. The Upper Falls are near but not enough to get wet.

We did this as an afternoon hike. The good news is that after the way down there is the store and an ice-cream was waiting for us.

On the next morning we hiked the Ledge Trail. It seems to be the third deadliest trail in Yosemite. Well, if I had known that before, I may not have done it. The reality is that it was beautiful, especially the couloir at the end. It took us 3 hours to arrive at the intersection with the 4-mile trail, almost at Glacier Point. And then, 2 more hours to get down to the road by the 4-mile trail. The Ledge Trail itself is exposed and slippery at some crucial moments. The good news is that it is well marked by yellow and orange stripes, so when we doubted we just had to look for them.

The first 2 thirds of the trail are dry and rocky, but when we turn left into the couloir the trail changes completely.

It becomes like a small garden full of flowers, with a creek in the middle that we had to cross several times. It is so full of vegetation that we had some difficulties to follow the marks and cut through the bushes. Sometimes the vegetation was so thick that we could not even see our feet. Here we also encountered the added difficulty of slippery wet rock.

Both are recommendable hikes to avoid people but they are risky and can have bad surprises. The snakes, though, were good with us.