Summer '22 Trip - Part 6

Dates: July 19-23, 2022

Crew: Monica Mah, Yisha Ng

Locations: Yosemite National Park

 The last stop in California, and a well-timed one at that

After driving through Yosemite to the Nevada side of the Sierra Nevada for Devil's Postpile and Mono Lake, we returned to Yosemite for good. The raging Washburn fire that we had been watching were now firmly under control and affected areas were localized to the southern part of the park, including Mariposa grove which we did not intend to visit. we had clear skies, fresh air, and no sign of smoke or haze from the fire. After a lot of uncertainty surrounding Yosemite in the week leading up to it, we were thankfully able to forge ahead with our plans.

Day 1

I captured the shot below from the car as we raced through Yosemite at the beginning of the day to get to Devil's Postpile in time. This ended up being one of my favorite pictures from the trip; the haze increasing as layer after layer of granite melt together gives such depth, and it's framed with just a bit of pines and water below and sky above. The sheer amount of exposed stone is a Yosemite staple, and never gets old to me.

The sun was setting as we wound our way up Tioga road to enter through the east gate of the park. With light fading fast, we decided to pull over at Tuolomne meadows to take a quick walk across the paved trail that leads to historic dwellings and springs. The granite peaks and domes glowed a rich red overhead and we saw deer bounding by in the yellow meadows. At the end of the trail the Soda Springs bubbled seemingly out of nowhere, bringing cold carbonated water to the surface. On our return along the same path, the reflection of the mountains in the still pools was captivating, but difficult to actually capture with a camera due to the low light.

Twilight scenes from Tuolomne meadows. We had (almost) the whole place to ourselves, and it was incredibly calming after a busy day.

Exiting the meadows as the last light faded, we drove another hour to our campsite in Upper Pines campground, where we would be spending the next several nights. Upper Pines is in the heart of Yosemite Valley, with hundreds of sites packed in to hold campers, tents, and hammocks galore. Our site had several boulders scattered throughout, giving it that authentic Yosemite feel. Monica tented, while Yisha and I set up our hammocks on our trees of choice (with padding for bark protection!).

We took the bus to the main Valley attractions: El Capitan and Yosemite falls. The falls weren't flowing to their maximum capability, but offered refuge from the already oppressive heat and were still an impressive sight as they fall 2,425 feet from the top of upper falls to the base of lower falls. The lower falls are easily viewed from a short paved trail and bridge, although we took the liberty of scrambling on boulders a bit to get up to the base of the falls themselves.

El Capitan was an exciting stop for me as one of the two most recognizable Yosemite features. The 3,000' prow is known more recently as the feature of the film Free Solo, where Alex Honnold free solos it, climbing to the top without any protection. I was content to get an eyeful of the wall, appreciating the sheer rise of it and the morning light striking one side of the prow while shadow engulfed the other. The right side is actually known as the Dawn Wall (wall of early morning light) and was the eponymous subject of another great climbing film. My climber friends have certainly seen them, but I recommend both films to everyone else just to marvel at the willpower (stubbornness?) displayed by Alex and Tommy to pull these climbs off.

One of the park's iconic viewpoints, Glacier Point is normally accessed by driving up Glacier Point Road and taking a leisurely stroll down to the overlook. Unfortunately, half of Yosemite was under trail/road maintenance or fire watch for 2022/23 and the road was entirely closed. Not that easily discouraged, we decided we'd just hike there from the valley. The trail is called "4 mile" trail, even though it's closer to 5 one way when it's all said and done; it's also nearly a constant grade straight up from the floor of the valley to Glacier point, some 3,200' of gain. What's worse, we didn't get a start until right around noon, the hottest part of the day and the overhead sun obliterated any hopes of constant shade on the trail. 

The first several miles were almost all exposed, up a steep and loose trail in the 100 degree heat. Monica was in the zone today but the head had my head screaming, and the steepness had my injured ankle agreeing with my head. At a few points I contemplated stopping but just kept adding one step at a time. We got there, thanks to the patience from my friends and stubbornness from me.

It was a surprisingly hard trail for a 9 mile loop to a well-known point in the park. Not that we underestimated it, but the starting time and conditions made this a bit of an unnecessary ordeal. Live and learn! It was 1000% worth it for the panoramic valley views from 3000' up, and we had the entire Glacier Point overlook to ourselves. I can't imagine how crowded it would be in the summer if the road was open.

From there, over 600 steps up a chopped-out granite stairway took us to the top of Vernal falls. We were enjoying the views from here when Monica dropped her phone and it slid down the bare stone slope directly into the stream at the top of the falls! Luckily it lodged against a stone and I was able to duck the railing and retrieve it without losing the phone or putting myself at risk. The waterproofing on new phones is reliable, because it kept working like a champ.

The trail continued up to Nevada falls, and stayed steep enough that we were able to pass lots of slower-moving groups who had to rest. Along the way we passed Emerald pool and the silver apron, two appealing bodies of water. We were in pretty stellar hiking shape at this point. We stopped for lunch just at the base of the falls, where a large boulder field provided seating opportunities with a view. I took the chance to practice some bouldering skills, scrambling up on top of a pinpoint boulder with the best view available. Unfortunately, I didn't scout for downclimb routes and had to jump off it, which put a severe pain into my foot that persisted for weeks afterwards.

Views of Nevada falls from below. A decent amount of water even for the peak of summer heat!

Finally making it to the top of Nevada falls, we took in views of the falls from the Merced river footbridge over the top, and admired the domes and cliffs. Liberty cap looked good enough we almost thought it was half dome for a while. We continued over the bridge and on to the 4-mile leg of the John Muir trail to head back down to the valley. This offered new views and a switchbacked route down through the pines all the way back to camp.

Mandatory rodent pictures. Just your standard squirrels in your nonstandard locations.

After a strategic hammock nap and dinner, we drove over to camp 4, the famous bouldering playground of Yosemite. While I was able to find the infamous Midnight Lightning V8 thanks to its chalked-on lightning bolt, we had less luck identifying anything else positively. We played around with some slabby highball boulders and generally enjoyed the cool evening, but camp 4 definitely calls for a revisit with a guidebook or valley expert with us. This was also our final night camping in the valley itself, so I made sure to appreciate the tall pines overhead as I walked around camp to wind down the evening.

Walking with a crashpad might be harder than climbing without one.

Starting from the Sunrise trailhead, we enjoyed an early morning walk in the shady subalpine forest before reaching a split sign that took us onto a grueling series of switchbacks and out of the treeline. From here we enjoyed great views and continued to yoyo up and down in elevation before Cloud's rest appeared before us. The approach steepened up on the way to the final sign, and then became a moderately narrow ridge. Even though the center segment is still 6' wide in most spots, it was quite exposed on each side. Safe, but not for the faint of heart. We saw one girl crawling on it while her boyfriend tried to convince her to walk. 

The ridge offers 360 degree views of all the best landmarks in Yosemite. Half Dome, Tenaya Lake, Sentinel Dome, North Dome, and countless peaks are in view and it's dizzying to look out on the vast sea of bare granite.

The top had the views we'd been waiting all week for. Totally blue skies, totally panoramic view. We ate lunch and found some slightly risky photo spots to stand on. A raven made several close passes before landing just feet from me, so I got to get in some bird photography practice on our break. Making our way back down the ridge, I almost felt like I was back in Marquette MI running and rockhopping on the breakwaters. 

Descending back into the welcome shade of the forest, I tried to catalog some wildflowers. It was getting hot by that point, so we took a swim in nearby Tenaya lake as a reward. The lake had shallows that were sun-warmed, but anything below standing depth was utterly frigid. We constructed a cairn in the lake to mark our presence, then went driving off towards our last camp. Rounding a corner suddenly the sky was dark and the sun blotted out behind a massive dark orange cloud. We found a scenic overlook to pull off at and saw it was smoke from a new fire filling half of the sky. As it turned out, a new fire had started that day. It made for extremely ominous but interesting viewing and some photos that broke the blue sky mold set by the rest of the day.

Our last night was spent in the Hodgdon Meadow campground, where a small loop contained all the campgrounds and we found our site on a hill with plentiful trees for hammocking. The smoke blotted out the sunset, but luckily did not descend to the campsite yet, and we still enjoyed fresh mountain air for one last night. Leaving for Sacramento the next morning was a bit of a relief after the 2 weeks of nonstop activity through Washington and California, but it was still tough to see the granite fade away in the rearview mirror. Back to reality for now. I was so inspired by the wilderness I spent these weeks immersed in that I bought as many adventure books as I could when I got back. While all good things must come to an end, it's certainly possible to continue appreciating them through the words and experiences of others as well! To put a bow on the whirlwind of adventures, it feels right to quote John Muir, who loved Rainier and Yosemite maybe more than anyone else ever has or ever will.

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings." - John Muir