On our last day, we summoned enough energy (barely) to hike up along the Merced River to the bridge below Vernal Falls. Along the way, we got some really nice views of the river.

You can see why they don't allow rafting down this stretch of the river...

The Merced leads up to Vernal Falls. At this point, we're still fairly far away
from Vernal, which is 317 feet high. Ardith and Fay would have forged on, but Dave and I were too tuckered out by the really steep trail we took just to get this far...

If you want to get an idea of what the water sounded like, click here to view a very short movie I took with my digital camera. The sound is off sync a little, for reasons I don't quite understand, but it gives you a good idea of how loud the water was.