On Saturday my wife and I did the Middle Earth canyoneering route, which starts at the base of Upper Yosemite Falls and descends the gorge between the Upper & Lower Falls, punctuated by a 400' rappel down Lower Yosemite Falls. Overall it entailed 10 rappels and three swims.
We climbed the Sunnyside Bench Regular Route (5.4, three pitches) then scrambled up a few hundred yards of class 2-3 slabs to get to the base of Upper Yosemite Falls.
Along the way we got a few glimpses down into the gorge to see what we were getting ourselves into.
The Falls were completely dry. There were some people slacklining between the viewing platform and the opposite side of Yosemite Creek.
The base of Upper Yosemite Falls feels like a place that is not made for humans. The evidence of the constant barrage of water, rocks and ice falling 1400 feet is all around you. Polished slabs, huge potholes, and very recent rockfall debris.
The cave at the base is pretty cool though.
Once you start walking down the gorge you come to the first rappel pretty quickly.
There was some delicate downclimbing, which was really more like controlled sliding on the highly polished granite.
Better watch your step on the slippery rock though, just after this edge is a 200 foot drop and the first long rappel.
Shortly after that point the swims start. I don't have that many photos of the inside of the actual gorge past this point since the camera was stowed away in a drybag. Would've been a good opportunity to borrow somebody's GoPro. Here is a shot of me rappelling to a small ledge before the second swim. The water was cold enough that we were both shivering after getting out.
Here's a shot looking down on the final swim, beyond which is the edge at the top of Lower Yosemite Falls.
After the last swim we did some push-ups and jumping jacks to warm back up, then did two 200-foot rappels just to the right of the watercourse of the lower falls, much to the delight of the tourists looking on from the bridge below. The first rappel anchor for the lower falls was on a cool perch, not bigger than 18 inches square, with a clear view 400 feet to the ground below.
This YouTube video has some good shots of the middle part of the gorge where I didn't take any photos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4-lZvdqNdg
This was an awesome adventure, right up there with climbing Lost Arrow Spire and tyrolean traversing back to the rim, which we did in 2011. I'll definitely look at the falls a little differently now.