Four Easy Hikes in Yosemite Valley

Yosemite is full of hiking trails, many of them suitable only for the ultra-fit hiker with lots of stamina and determination. However, there are some nice, short hikes in Yosemite Valley that almost anyone can manage. These are some of them:

• Bridalveil Fall: 0.5 miles round trip, 20 minutes. In the afternoon, you may see rainbows in the spray. Starts from the parking area along Southside Drive.

• Lower Yosemite Fall: 1 mile round trip, 20 minutes. Use the shuttle bus to get to the trailhead. You can see both falls from there. The trail goes to the base of the lower falls.

• Mirror Lake: 2 miles round trip, 1 hour. Guidebooks say this is a fairly flat, two-mile trail leads to a calm lake just below Half Dome. Some may also mention that for much of the year this "lake" is really a meadow. None will tell you that the trail is littered with horse-poop. If you want to go, the best way to get to the trailhead is to take the Valley Shuttle bus to the Mirror Lake Trail stop.

• Vernal Fall Footbridge: 1.4 miles round trip, 1 to 2 hours. This first section of the more difficult Mist Trail gains 400 feet in elevation. Continue to the top of the falls if you're up to the strenuous climb, for a total distance of 3 miles. The easiest way to get to the trialhead is by the shuttle bus, getting off at the Happy Isles stop.