Merced River

River Review

• I ran this river in the exact same fashion last year, except I stopped with Sarah and Louie at Sentinel Bridge. This year, I went to Swinging Bridge.

• The portion after Sentinel Bridge, which was new to me, was similar to the first half of our ride down the river. Still, getting almost double the time on this beautiful river was a blessing.

• There were tons of people on the river and the beaches. We accidentally came close to hitting other boats, but the worst of it was a graze against another raft. They were awfully nice about it when we apologized.

What Happened?

4.9 miles, 2 hrs 14 mins

After such a hot morning, the best solution for cooling down was a raft ride down the Merced. We packed everything we needed into a backpacking pack and a dry bag and we were off!

The river was at the height of 4’, which meant that the river was slow and calm with no real rapids to speak of. Since we were want of excitement, we spent the ride gawking at the beautiful slabs of granite on all sides of us.

Right before the swinging bridge, we decided to get off as it marked the end of the easy portion of the river—also, the beaches beyond looked packed.

We then walked back to the Yosemite Village Store, where we met up with Marina and Sarah and caught up. Cassie and I then bought a quart of Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia, which we devoured it as if the sun were crashing into Earth and we needed to eat it before it melted.