Yosemite Trip Day 8 - Hike Clouds Rest

Our last morning of camping at Porcupine Flat.

09/24/10 Friday

We found our last campsite (for once, with no difficulty) at Porcupine Flat. This is a primitive campground tucked in the trees just off the highway halfway between Tioga Pass and Yosemite Valley.

The only issue was that, at 8,100’, it was below freezing when we got up in the morning.

The start of the trail to Clouds Rest.

I coaxed Nancy into one last long hike, 14.5 miles round-trip with 2,000’ gain to Clouds Rest.

The trailhead is at the southwestern end of Tenaya Lake and runs all the way to Yosemite Valley.

Some of the granite along the way.

Clouds Rest is a 9,930’ peak that dominates Tenaya Canyon and provides amazing views of much of Yosemite.

A trail junction at about the five mile mark.

You spend most of the hike in the trees, and don’t see much of anything until you start up the summit ridge of Clouds Rest.

I think Nancy is high.

The summit ridge is a long, narrow spine of granite that falls away 5,000’ feet down to Tenaya Creek.

Amazing views from the summit ridge.

The ridge is wide enough to hike comfortably, but has enough exposure to get your attention.

You can see Tenaya Lake (the trailhead) center-left.

One nice thing about this trail is that it gets a fraction of the traffic of the Valley hikes.

Looking towards Half Dome from the top of Clouds Rest.

It’s a little weird to be looking down on Half Dome.

Nancy was thrilled to make another summit; she didn’t know what to expect on this hike.

Our perfect weather petered out on us a bit, as a fire to the north made the sky a little hazy.

Relaxing after the hike at Tenaya Lake.

We made good time hiking, and after getting back to the truck we walked over to Tenaya Lake to sit on its granite “beach” and have a beer.

I sooo wanted to jump in the lake and wash off the grime from the trail, but the water was just too freakin’ cold.

Adios, Yosemite.

We had never spent much time in Yosemite, despite living only a few hours away, so this trip was a revelation for us.

Over five days of hiking, we hiked almost 60 miles and close to 12,000’ of vertical.

Great weather, small crowds, awesome scenery, killer hikes—it was a great vacation.

Yosemite Trip Days 6 & 7 - Valley Tour

The Ahwahnee Hotel

09/22/10 Wednesday

After four days of hiking, we took it easy for a couple of days. First, we had to drag all our camping gear about a hundred yards to another campsite—did I mention the crazy reservation system at Yosemite?

We spent the day touristing the Valley, visiting the museums, checking out the Ansel Adams galleries, and marveling at the Ahwahnee Hotel.

You can’t see them, but there’s at least eight groups of climbers on El Cap.

After that was a half-hour lying in the meadow watching climbers on El Capitan.

Bridalveil Trickle

09/23/10 Thursday

Not much of an agenda for today, just sleeping in, packing up, and heading up the road to find another campsite.

We made a short detour to Bridalveil Fall on our way out of the valley—did I mention there’s no water?

Yosemite Trip Day 5 - Hike Half Dome

The trailhead to Half Dome

09/21/10 Tuesday

After hiking up to Glacier Point, we wanted to take it easy and do a short hike, but due to the crazy campsite reservation system we only had our campsite for two nights and then had to move to another site for the next night. Since tomorrow would be tied up with changing campsites, we decided to hike up Half Dome today.

We got up early and hit the trail before 7:00. There were a lot of other hikers out early, also aiming at Half Dome.

Vernal Fall, with not a whole lot of water

We took the Mist Trail past Vernal Fall, which is not nearly as impressive this time of year.

This is one of the most popular hikes in Yosemite Valley. Most people hike the 1.5 miles to the top of Vernal and go no further.

Lots and lots of rock steps.

There’s about 700 steps carved into the granite as the trail climbs past the waterfalls.

The rock steps continue up to Nevada Fall.

Another mile or so takes you up to Nevada Fall. We were on a mission, so we didn’t spend any time hanging out by the water. We wanted to get up and down before dark.

Half Dome, with the sub-dome on the right, and the saddle between the domes where the cables start.

Once you get above Nevada Fall you enter Little Yosemite Valley and begin to get views of Half Dome. This is a couple of miles of fairly flat hiking in sandy, decomposed granite.

In a recent burn area.

There’s a short burned section as you start ascending again through the trees.

Cuidado!

Almost all of the accidents on Half Dome have occurred during lightning storms or in wet weather. There’s a sign at the base of the sub-dome advising you not to be stupid.

More steps hacked into the rock.

The trail up the sub-dome is mostly steps cut into the rock, with some scrambling on granite slabs when the steps occasionally disappear.

Gaining a view of Tenaya Canyon while trudging up the sub-dome.

The sub-dome has some exposure and is a little spooky in places, but for the most part a fall won’t kill you.

Awesome views, with Clouds Rest on the right.

The scenery from the top of the sub-dome are amazing, with views of Tenaya Canyon, Yosemite Valley and Little Yosemite Valley.

A panorama of Half Dome from the top of the sub-dome.

Getting unnerved by the cables.

From the sub-dome, you cross a narrow saddle and start up the infamous cables.

Nancy is not at all afraid of heights, but something about all the people on the cables made her nervous. We ate our lunch and spent too much time thinking about it.

It’s a lot safer than it looks, but when you start up the cables it seems almost vertical. We went up about fifty feet, but Nancy did not feel comfortable with it, so we headed back down.

Coming back down the sub-dome.

I felt safer on the cables than the sub-dome, as there’s a few places where the trail rolls away, with nothing to grab onto.

The top of Nevada Fall

We took a different route back down, avoiding the crowds on the Mist Trail by taking the John Muir trail at the top of Nevada Fall.

This gives you a nice perspective of Nevada Fall with Liberty Cap standing over it.

A panorama of Liberty Cap and Nevada Fall from the John Muir Trail

Tired but semi-successful.

The last section of hiking is uneventful, just switch-backing down through the trees until you rejoin the Mist Trail.

Here we are at the end of the trail, after about 16 miles and 4,500 vertical feet of hiking.

Now we just have another half-mile to the campsite. Ugh.

Yosemite Trip Day 4 - Hike Glacier Point

The trailhead for Glacier Point.

09/20/10 Monday

We left our crappy campsite at Crane Flat at 6:00 in the morning and Nancy got in line at the campground office in Yosemite Valley at 6:45 while I made breakfast. Oh, how the other campers queuing in line envied her oatmeal and coffee.

We scored a cancelled campsite in the Valley, moved in, and immediately took off to hike the Four Mile Trail up to Glacier Point.

After a mile or so, the trees begin to open up.

The trail climbs 3,200’ in 4.6 miles, and features beautiful views of El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, and eventually Half Dome.

A panorama of Yosemite Valley, with the Cathedral Rocks, El Capitan, The Brothers and the Merced River.

Half Dome—our goal for tomorrow.

The trail was paved decades ago, and so is a combination of broken up asphalt, rocks and dirt.

Half Dome comes into view on one of the switchbacks about halfway up, and is stunning.

The view of Half Dome from Glacier Point.

The trail is a pleasant hike, despite the elevation gain, as you are mostly in the shade and the views are spectacular. A final section through the trees takes you up to Glacier Point and its crowds of people.

Glacier Point gets busloads of tourists coming up from the valley. It has a general store and a large observation area.

Half Dome, Clouds Rest behind it, and Tenaya Canyon.

We walked out to an area of granite below the main observation deck and had our lunch while gazing at Half Dome and Tenaya Canyon.

Yosemite Falls is completely dry this time of year

The weather was perfect, the people on the trail were sparse, the mosquitoes were non-existent.

The only drawback: no waterfalls.

Yosemite Trip Day 3 - Hike Cathedral Lake

The trailhead is in Tuolumne Meadows.

09/19/10 Sunday

For our second hike we picked a trail in the Tuolumne Meadows area, to Lower Cathedral Lake. It’s about 7 miles round trip and gains about 800’.

Granite domes pop up like mushrooms.

The trail does most of its climbing in the first mile or so.

You don’t get many vistas until you reach the lake, but occasionally a granite dome will suddenly appear.

Some of the granite along the trail.

As the trail gains through the trees, rock features begin to appear.

Approaching Lower Cathedral Lake.

The advantage to hiking Yosemite in the fall is that there are no crowds and no mosquitoes. The disadvantage is that the waterfalls and lakes are greatly diminished.

A large part of this area is a bog in early summer.

Cathedral Peak (10,940’) is in the background.

Once you reach the lake, there is granite everywhere.

Lower Cathedral Lake has a massive granite bowl for its southern boundary.

The huge, smooth sheets of granite are a little disorienting. It’s odd to wander around on dunes of solid rock.

The lake has a large granite bench for its eastern end.

The weather was perfect the entire trip, except for an overcast sky and some chilly winds that came in the afternoon.

Crossing streams is easy when there’s no water.

We got back the the truck pretty quickly, as we were hoping to score a campsite in Yosemite Valley on a Sunday afternoon.

Good luck with that!

Toasting our crappy campsite.

We drove all the way in to Yosemite Valley only to find the campgrounds full, so we had to backtrack 40 minutes to the crappy campground at Crane Flat.

None of the campsites looked appealing, and the one we resigned ourselves to had moon dust instead of solid earth, no level ground anywhere to put a tent, crappy bathrooms, highway noise, and bears wandering through at 4:00 in the morning.

Yosemite Trip Day 2 - Hike Mono Pass

The trailhead for Mono Pass.

09/18/10 Saturday

Our prospects for getting a campsite on a Saturday in the park were not good, so we decided to stay put for another night and find a hike close to the Tioga entrance.

We opted to hike up to Mono Pass, a 9-mile round-trip hike that starts at 9,700’ and gains about 900’.

The trail passes an old mining cabin before it climbs above treeline.

The trail initially winds its way through the trees, and is a moderate, easy trail the whole way.

Passing Mammoth Peak (12,117’) to the west.

You get above treeline about 3/4 of the way in, with views of the eastern, high-altitude side of Yosemite.

An unnamed peak forms the south side of Mono Pass.

After about 4 miles, you reach the high point, 10,600’ Mono Pass. At this point the Bloody Canyon Trail descends all the way down to Mono Lake.

Bloody Canyon got its name from the injuries suffered by livestock making the rugged passage.

Mt. Gibbs (12,764’) guards the pass to the north.

The scenery here is much different than most of Yosemite. It’s more similar to Mt. Rose and Mt. Freel in Tahoe.

A short hike past the pass gives you views of Lower Sardine Lake. The Bloody Canyon Trail descends to Mono Lake 4,200’ below.

130-year-old miners’ cabins.

A few miners’ cabins, established in 1879 and abandoned in 1890, sit a quarter-mile away.

Rustling up some grub.

The cabins area a reminder, once again, that miners are some tough SOBs. What a hard way to make a living!

Looking north from the south shore of Saddlebag Lake.

After our hike, we drove a couple miles from our campsite up to Saddlebag Lake to assess the view. The area just southwest of Saddlebag has 12,000’ White Mountain, which offers terrific backcountry skiing in the late spring.

Saddlebag Lake is large enough that it offers a ferry service for hikers and fishermen accessing the numerous smaller lakes north of Saddlebag.