High Country Hike

Thanks to our last evening's waiter, Thomas, we have our hike planned for today.  We wanted to explore a bit of the high country and knew time was limited since this is the first road to close following any snow accumulation and weather forecasts were predicting up to a foot within the next day. So to the high country we drove, destination Cathedral Lakes, stopping briefly at Olmstead Overlook and Tenya Lake for a few photo opportunities.   

Tenya Lake

Our instructions were to bypass the crowded trail head of Cathedral Lakes and find the Climber's trail.  We were to look for a small pull off shaped like a boot before the trail head.  If you have reached the Tuolumne meadows you have gone too far.  Well we of course drove past the meadows, the Tuolumne lodge and then Lembert Dome, and yes we had not found the boot shaped pull off at this point.  Steve was of course not deterred and determined to find this secret trail and turned the car around and continued the hunt.  I on the other hand was ready to hike the well-marked, people inhabited, Cathedral Lakes trail.  But alas, Steve pulled into this small pull off, I think to turn around but he will claim he knew exactly where he was going.   Our hike begins....
(Note: To be more specific if you are looking for this trail head it's on the south side of the road. 3.4 miles west of the Tuolumne Store and 4.2 miles east of Tenya Lake.)

 In front of us about 10 ft. into the woods was a small wood pole with a climbing carabineer symbol on it and the start of the climbers trail. We started uphill on a single track trail to the base and wall of the Fairview Dome.  A Granite peak that is over approximately 10,000 ft... .  Once reaching the wall we took the path to the right , the Lucky Streak Trail, hiked along the edge until we came out of the woods and into a clearing that had the most spectacular views, we figured at this point we were probably about 9,000 ft.. We continued hiking around the granite dome gaining elevation, marking our trail just in case we needed to find our way back, and taking in the breathtaking views. 

The dome was so steep and we were hiking at an angle the entire time.  We were glad we had our hiking poles and good boots and thankful that it was a dry sunny 55 degree day. We reached the summit in about 2 hours which included a lunch break along the way and stopping time to observe a forest fire in the distance.  We needed to check out wind conditions and how close the fire was before we continued on.  We were pretty far away and so high up we decided that continuing on would not be a problem.  We were so glad we did, the views from the summit were amazing!  We could see the entire valley, the Toulumne meadow, Lembert dome,

 
Cathedral Range, and so many mountain ranges from where we were.  We never did cross paths with the Cathedral Lakes trail or even another hiker the entire day.  We were on top of the world, thankful for the suggestion, and even more thankful that our bodies cooperated and allowed us to experience such wonders.

We drove back to our lodge via a stop back through the Valley.We still hadn't checked out the historic
 
Ahwahnee hotel and it was on my must see list while we were in the park. So glad we did, a little out of the Samet budget for overnight accomodations, standard room will run you around $400.00 a night.  However, we found a nice table at the bar on the hotel terrace with a spectacular views and  ice cold beer.  We sat there and talked about our experiences over the last four days, how lucky we were to still be able to explore the way we do, and lastly how nice it is to share it with your special someone.

Until next time!
 

Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias

Today was our "hiking" day off or so we thought.  Near the South entrance of the park is the Mariposa Grove and the Giant Sequoias and a great place to meander through the woods and view the more than 500 mature giant sequoias, visit the Sequoia museum, or enjoy a picnic lunch at the Wawona Point Vista.  Although it's a steady climb up-hill the grade is gradual, the trails are well groomed, easy terrain , and certainly do able by someone in reasonable shape.  A map of the forest and description of many of the largest and unique trees is available for .50 cents or free for download. I would highly recommend grabbing one of these at the start. Note: there is an optional tram that you can take as well.

On the right as you start out into the grove on the main trail is the Fallen Monarch. 

Fallen Monarch

Biologists suspect that this tree has been down for centuries.  Tannic acid in the wood suppresses the initial growth of fungi and bacteria, essentially arresting decay of fallen sequoia. Only when rain and melting snow have leached the tannin from the wood can decay begin.  Sequoias do not have deep tap roots, instead the roots speread out near the surface to capture water.  While the roots are usually no deeper than six feet, they can fan out more than 150 feet, providing a stable base to balance the massive trunk.

Bachelor and Three Graces

Grizzly Giant

Continuing on we passed the Bachelor and Three Graces, and the Giant Grizzly, which is one of the larges trees in the Mariposa Grove and is estimated to be 1,800 years old.  As you look up on the south side of the tree there is a huge limb which is almost seven feet in diameter.  

Grizzly Giant

 Some fifty yards beyond the Grizzly Giant is the California Tunnel Tree, cut in 1985 to allow horse-drawn stages to pass through.

Failthful Couple

Faithful Couple

In about another 1/2 mile is the Faithful Couple. ( It's here where there was a number of couples were posing, too cute).  Two large trees have fused together at their bases, but remain clearly separated above.

1 1/4 mile further is the Clothespin Tree.  Numerous fires have excavated a natural tunnel wider than a car.  Size is deceptive here, so Steve walked up and stood in the opening. 

Clothespin Tree

 

Clothespin Tree

The trail continues on to the Mariposa Grove Musuem where you can see many exhibits and the history of the giant sequoias.  From here you can venture on to Wawona Point where you have stunning views to the west and north and a great place to have a picnic lunch.  Unfortuntely our planning was not as good as normal and our lunch was tucked neatly in the cooler buck in the car so we decided to head back down and enjoy our lunch people watching on a log carved bench near the Ranger's station and summarizing that our day off from hiking actually turned into about 4 mile round trip trek, 2 miles being uphill.  All good; much needed massages scheduled for the afternoon.  Life is good!

Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley

Today we drove to the Yosemite Valley.  Yosemite Valley is world-famous for its impressive waterfalls, cliffs, and unusual rock formations.  Since we were coming from the south on the Wawona Road we drove through the Tunnel where we had our first glimpse of the specatucular view of the entire Valley. There is a pull off  just after the tunnel and a great place to get pictures of the massive cliff faces like El Capitan, Cathederal Rock, Bridal Veil Falls, and Half Dome all in one view. I would suggest you bring your wide angle lense for this one. It's amazing and well worth the stop before you enter into the valley.

Bridal Veil Falls

Catherderal Rock

Our hiking path to Vernal Falls

From here we stopped at Bridal Vail Falls, water was minimal but was flowing. We could only imagine what it would be like in the spring time. On to Yosemite Valley and El Capitan Meadows where you have a straight up view of El Capitan and views of Cathedral Rocks. El Capitan , the massive granite monolith stands 3,593 ft. from base to summit, breathtaking.  We continued our drive through the valley past the Yosemite Chapel, and the famous Sentinel Bridge.  It's here where you have great views of Half dome reflected in the Merced River especially at sunset and Yosemite Falls nearby.  We then stopped at the visitors center where we met up with Oxford friend (one of the boys sitters)Naomi Chakrin. She is a Wilderness Ranger here at Yosemite.  Wonderful to see her and visit with her before we hopped on the shuttle bus to take us to the trail head for our afternoon hike. 

There is no parking at the trail head so you must take a shuttle bus from one of the parking areas.  In the future we would probably park at Curry Village and catch the bus from there instead of from the visitors center.  

Vernal Falls

Views of Grizzy and Liberty Peaks

The hike we chose was the Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall trails starting from the Happy Isles trail head (shuttle stop#16).  It was an amazing but fairly strenuous hike.  You climb along nature's "giant staircase," where you are rewarded with close-up view of two waterfalls, emerald pools, and numerous geologic features. It's about 2.4 miles round trip with 1000ft. elevation gain to the top of Vernal Fall and you should plan on about 3 hours.  It's 5.4 mi round trip to the top of Nevada Falls and you should plan on 5-6 hours for this.  Being that we started so late in the late I have to admit that we stopped just past Vernal Falls.  The sun would be setting soon and not sure we really wanted to break out the headlamps for the downward climb on the staircase.  I'm sure it would have been an adventure but believe it or not we know our limitations and it was time to head down the mountain. 

Half Dome at Sunset

The Valley at Sunset

El Capitan at Sunset

Half Dome at Sunset

Since we were still in the Valley at sunset we headed over to the Sentinel Bridge for a sunset picture of Half Dome, Yosemite Falls and then one last shot of El Capitan before exiting the valley. The Golden light was spectacular and worth the extra few minutes.  Exhausted but exhilarated from today's exploration we headed off to our accomodations, the Tenya Lodge for a little dinner, a glass of wine, and perhaps a few minutes by natures TV, the firpit.

Sentinel Dome and Taft Point Trails Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park 2014

I know it’s a little crazy for us to be posting another blog so soon after our Oregon post but we recently traveled to California to watch our grandchildren and decided to extend our stay and visit Yosemite National Park.  We were so impressed with it so we decided that we should write about it.  So if you have been there before please enjoy the memories, if you haven’t then please enjoy the experience.  It’s a special place and one that you should definitely put on your bucket list.  My pictures don’t do it justice but hopefully will enjoy them.

Half Dome

Sentinel Dome

We entered Yosemite National Park at the South Entrance from Fresno and drove to Glacier Point Road to the Sentinel Dome and Taft Point trail head; per suggestion of our friend and Yosemite Wilderness Ranger, Naomi Charkin.  We decided to hike the trail counterclockwise starting on Sentinel Dome trail. This trail leads mostly across open granite with little shade, but it was perfect weather about 75  degrees and a beautiful day for a hike.  With the Sentinel Dome in our view right from the start we were excited to see what the views were going to be from this vantage point.  We started our ascent from the Northeast side of the dome where the incline is less imposing.  From here, we scrambled up the granite slope to the top of the dome where we had a breathtaking 360-degree view of the park and a birds-eye view of Half-Dome to the North. Our elevation at this point was 8122ft.  Simply amazing! 

Half Dome

We enjoyed a light lunch before continuing down the slope to the Pohono Trail junction where we picked up the Taft Point trail. Just before reaching the expansive view of the south rim of the Yosemite Valley at Taft Point you pass a view Yosemite Falls or at least the rock scaring where the falls used to flow (perhaps in the spring). You continue on the trail meandering through open woods and meadows

View of the Valley from Taft Point

Yosemite Falls

The Fissures

before coming to an area called the Fissures. These are narrow fractures in the granite joints. A little scary... The drops in these fractures are up to 2000 ft.  .From here you reach Taft point where you have sweeping views of the Yosemite Valley, including El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, and Cathederal Rock.  

Sentinel Dome/Taft Point Loop 4.9 miles round trip approx. 1,000ft elevation change.  Locals say that viewing the sunset from Sentinel Dome is the absolute best. 

What a way to start out our Yosemite Adventure.  Already in love with this place and looking forward to so much more exploring.  Our accommodations for our stay was at the Tenya Lodge in Fish Camp, CA. a beautiful  lodge located at the south end of the park.  It's a great location for hiking the areas near the Glacier  Point Road, and the Mariposa Grove.  It's about an hour from the Valley and about 2 1/2 hours from high country hiking.  It has a wonderful spa and a number of restaurants to choose from as well as a number of outdoor fireplaces to snuggle up to.