Yosemite - Hiking the Lower Valley

This morning I hustled over to the shower facilities and came back for a breakfast of oatmeal that I reinforced with a couple of scoops of peanut butter.  We hiked the Vernal Fall trail.  It gave us a workout as we steadily climbed to a bridge over the Merced River.  Because it is early autumn, there wasn't much of a "fall" to see from the footbridge.  From here it is optional to continue along the John Muir trail all of the way up to the top of Half Dome but we had other plans today.  We turned around and hiked back to the bottom of the trail and turned north towards Mirror Lake.  The seasonal lake was a dry bed today but the views were very nice nonetheless.  If it weren't for the clouds of gnats that chased us for what felt like a quarter mile it would have been a very chill hike.

We had a little lunch back at the campground and then went for a meandering drive for the afternoon.  We stopped at the well-known Tunnel View overlook and then climbed up to Glacier Point Road.  Along the way we stopped for a "Bear Jam" of traffic and made our way gradually to the Glacier Point overlook.

In the evening we played some more of our tile game but the absence of proper camp chairs was starting to hurt both of us.  The campground picnic tables are fine for short sits and not much else.

At sundown I took a camera and tripod over to the Merced River bed but a good distance off of the road and into the woods for some improved night photography conditions. 

 

Vernal Fall hike

Mirror Lake trail

Mt. Watkins in the middle

Tunnel View

Bear!

Yosemite - The High Sierras

This morning we were quick to pack up and vacate our Hodgdon Meadows campsite.  The roads through the park are long and winding.  Since we were going to be camping in the Valley for the next two nights, we headed up to the higher elevation part of the park, stopping at Olmsted Point after sunrise.  The short trail from the parking lot rewarded us with panoramic views of the upper portion of Yosemite Valley and the northern side of Half Dome.

We continued eastward and parked at Tenaya Lake.  As we hiked the perimeter trail we saw people setting up to climb the nearby domes and we saw some people who had already gotten an early start on their ascent.  The lake was nearly perfectly still and clear as could be.  For most of the hike we encountered almost no other people.  When we rounded back toward the park road there were several groups going for what looked like a refreshing swim and we saw some inflatable kayaks.

The Tuolumne Meadows was very beautiful but the wind was starting to pick up.  We hiked up to an old Sierra Club cabin and took in the views of Cathedral Peak, Unicorn Peak, and Lembert Dome.  This area sits at about 8,600 ft of elevation.

By this time my feet were starting to bother me.  We went to the Tuolumne Meadows visitor center, a former Civilian Conservation Corps mess hall built in 1934, and I warmed my hands by the wood-burning stove.

It was a long drive back the way we came and down into Yosemite Valley.  Hans took over driving and I nodded off in the afternoon sun.  Coming down from the higher mountains took a long time and once we turned on to the main valley loop road we were blown away by our initial views of El Capitan and the surrounding cliffs.

When we checked into the Upper Pines campground we were taken aback by how warm it was compared to up in the high Sierra.  The elevation is closer to 6,500 feet in the valley.  To get our bearings we went to the commercial center of the valley and walked around the grocery store, visitor center, and smaller museums.  I inquired about shower facilities and got the scoop from a Park Ranger.

In the evening we were pretty tired but I was anxious to take advantage of another potentially clear night of stargazing.  Hans accompanied me to a parking lot facing Half Dome and if it weren't for all of the traffic from other cars and the park buses it would have been great.  Watcha gonna do when you're in one of the most visited national parks on a major holiday weekend?  Still, it was fun to watch the intermittent headlamps of climbers going up and down the peaks.  We watched one particularly bright one slowly rappel down Mount Watkins.

Olmsted Point view

Lake Tenaya

Tuolumne Meadows and River

Lembert Dome with the most prominence

Unicorn Peak on the left, Cathedral Peak on the right

Three Brothers

Cathedral Rocks East

El Capitan

Mt. Watkins and Half Dome at night

Yosemite - Gaining Altitude

Last night we flew into San Francisco and stayed at one of those airport hotels.  Nothing fancy, but it had a Denny's in the parking lot!  In the morning we had a pretty darn good breakfast at Millbrae Pancake House,  a spot that's been open since 1959.  The inside was like a time capsule of wood paneling, cozy booths, and western-style wallpaper.  Even 30 minutes after opening they were pretty busy.  I got their standard buttermilk pancakes and Hans got the Swedish pancakes.  We met our goal of "filling up" before a long day of driving.  On our way across California we picked up mega-huge sandwiches that were going to double as lunch and dinner later.

Highway 140 was closed do to wildfires so we did not get to enter the park through the regular entrance and we missed out on the scenic drive through Arch Rock.  Instead, we entered the park through the Big Oak Flat entrance.  It was just as well since we were going to spend the night at nearby Hodgdon Meadow campground.  After receiving a briefing about the bear boxes at each camp site from a Park Ranger we set up a limited domicile.  We were going to be there for just one night.  The location was convenient but there was virtually no privacy as each site was crammed together.

We drove to the parking area for the Tuolumne Grove hiking area.  Along the 2.5-mile out-and-back trail are about 20 mature giant Sequoia trees.  You have to hike a bit from the parking lot to get to them, however.  The trail descends by about 500 feet.  As we began our hike we encountered several other visitors who were trekking back up the hill and having to take several breaks to catch their breath.  The overall elevation at this place is already at 6000 feet, so if you're a sea-level dweller like us it's a little tough.

There were a few fallen trees that you could walk up to and really get a sense of how huge they are.  At one point while we were walking we heard a child's voice say "hello!" and it was coming from one of the hollow dead trees.  I said "Hi, do you live here?" but there was no reply.  When we came around a bend we could see that kids and brave adults could shimmy quite a way through one of the old dead trees.

There is a "tunnel" tree on the trail and it was made after the tree itself died and broke away.  The trail we were hiking used to be a road for tourists to drive on and their vehicles could easily pass through the tunnel.

The hike up was slow for me as I took my time but I was never completely out of breath.  Back at the campsite we enjoyed some tile-game time and a California chardonnay along with some Goldfish crackers.

After dark I set up one of the cameras to do some night photography.  It was very dark down in the trees and I had to really look hard even with a headlamp on when a stealthy raccoon shambled through the neighborhood. 

 

A nice view of the Milky Way and Andromeda

Star Trails