Yosemite, July 2005

This year was the Variety Pack trip -- a little of everything. We covered terrain from 4300' to 10,800' in elevation, on rivers, lakes, and rocks. It was also our longest trip yet: seven days, 50-ish miles, and about 10,000' of elevation gain. And despite being a well-known route through the park, we saw surprisingly few people.

This was also the first year I brought a digital camera, which explains the large number of pictures displayed here!

Slideshow

Fresh and clean

Alex in the creek	A multiple exposure using the close-ups

Day 1: White Wolf to Morrison Creek

Close-ups from the bottom of the creek

After a swim, we hiked up to the nearby ridge for some spectacular views of the canyon and the upper end of Hetch Hetchy.

Views from the ridge down into the Grand Canyon

Getting closer...

Finally the river!

A small lake we passed on the way down

Our lunch spot

Day 2: Morrison Creek to the Tuolumne River

The river was fairly full and flowing quickly, and we soon found a beautiful grove of trees on the bank for our lunchtime swim. From there, the trail followed the river to Pate Valley and continued up the canyon. Parts of the trail were unpleasantly hot slogs through marshy fern banks, while others were shaded cathedral forests. The strangest parts were due to the exceptionally low elevation: oak and bay laurel forests that looked and smelled like Berkeley -- if you ignored the rushing river and 2000' granite cliffs! There were even isolated patches of poison oak.

After a few unexpected small climbs with our full packs, we were pretty tired and found a great campsite about two miles up from Pate Valley. This campsite was in the trees next to a very big pool at the bottom of a large cascade on the river. The water was so choppy from the cascade that it wasn't exactly relaxing, but it certainly was fun! Alex, however, seemed to be coming down with something and spent a few hours just sitting on a comfy rock.

Alex relaxing next to our cascade and pool

The falls on Register Creek

The tumbling river

Day 3: Muir Gorge and Waterwheel Falls

Views of the canyon

After coming back down to the river after the gorge bypass, the trail continued up the river, climbing gently and moderately in places. Soon we reached the ascent next to Waterwheel Falls and started slowly up. Despite being about the same vertical distance as the gorge bypass, this climb is much steeper and we suffered mightily -- Eric cursed every step he took.

Eric suffering the climb around Waterwheel Falls

Waterwheel Falls

The distractions to our pain, however, were exceptional: we could not believe the beauty of the views, both down the canyon and of the falls. As we'd hoped with such a wet year, the falls were spectacular.

After cresting the falls, we continued on for a short distance and then left the trail down into a grove in a bend in the river. There we found one of the two best campsites on this trip. The site was huge, canopied by giant trees, and had access to a really lovely, calm stretch of the river with a great diving rock.

Best...campsite...ever

Le Conte Falls

California Falls

White Cascade

Day 4: Waterwheel Falls to Polly Dome Lakes

At Glen Aulin we turned South and climbed slightly to lunch at McGee Lake. This was a beautiful, warm lake -- a nice change from the loud, cold river -- and Eric delighted in viewing Tuolumne Peak and Mt. Conness in opposite directions from the middle of the lake.

We considered camping at the lake, but wanted to get more miles in that day in order to ease our climb the next day. So after lunch we continued on our way across the Cathedral Creek valley. This was the least pleasant portion of the hike for me. The trail was more difficult than interesting, plus extremely buggy. By the time we reached the Polly Dome Lakes, I was exhausted and grumpy. The beauty and warmth of this lake was unfortunately not enough to overcome my mood, the mucky lake bottom, or the swarms of mosquitoes, and I reached my low point on the trip. We all went to be early that night.

Polly Dome Lakes

Mosquitoes like Alex

Views on the way up

Day 5: Polly Dome Lakes to Tuolumne Peak

What was most impressive, however, were the views. This slope of Tuolumne Peak looks Southeast toward the heart of the Park, and as we climbed higher the views of Tuolumne Meadows, Tenaya Lake, and the Cathedral Range were just astonishing.

The lake at our camp

The terrain here was so fantastically different from Pate Valley: a few stunted trees, bunch grasses, rocks everywhere, and patches of snow in the shadows -- it felt like we were on a completely different backpacking trip! Climbing into this after the swamps near Polly Dome Lakes was extremely uplifting.

Immediately after crossing the high ridge on the trail, we set up camp next to a snowmelt pond at 10,000'. This pond was our other favorite campsite of the trip. It sat next to a small, gurgling creek running through a flowery meadow that appeared to drop off the edge of the earth 50' further on. Beyond the drop-off lay an excellent view of Matterhorn Peak and Mt. Conness to the North.

Various views of and from our camp

Eric having a drink	Alex having a drink	Eric hanging on the edge
Wildflowers in front of Cold Mountain	The stream and meadow.	Mt. Conness at sunset

Small tarn on the way up...

...and the way down

Hanging out on top

Since the climb to this point had taken only the morning, we decided to continue packless up to the top of Tuolumne Peak. This was another 1000 vertical feet, mostly scrambling over boulders and loose rocks. But, oh my God, the view was like nothing I'd ever seen before. At every point on this trip so far, we'd marveled at how the views had kept increasing in beauty, thinking of course that they couldn't possibly get better -- and then getting proved wrong. That happened again on Tuolumne Peak. The view from the top is almost impossible to describe. The entirety of Yosemite National Park is laid out before you like a model railroad table. You can see everything: Matterhorn Peak, Mt. Conness, the Cathedral Range, the Clark Range, Tenaya Canyon, Half Dome, and, right at your doorstep, May Lake and Mt. Hoffman. We sat for about two hours, saying little more than "Wow".

Views from at or near the top of Tuolumne Peak

Cathedral Peak	The Cathedral Range	Sawtooth Ridge and Matterhorn Peak
Panorama of Yosemite Park from Tuolumne Peak

Eventually, we climbed back down to our campsite and had a (quick) swim amongst the icebergs. A lack of mosquitoes was a blessing of this elevation, and we calmly watched the colors change on the mountains to the North as evening came on.

Eric swimming with icebergs

The mouse in our fire pit

Cathedral Peak

South Fork Cathedral Creek valley

Day 6: Tuolumne Peak to Ten Lakes

We continued past the largest of the lakes and descended to the second largest, lowest, and, by the looks of it on a Saturday night, most popular of the lakes. Despite our fears, we managed to find a great campsite hidden behind two fallen logs. After a very nice swim, we relaxed and enjoyed a great campfire on our last night of the trip.

Second largest of the Ten Lakes

Our armoire

Eric thinking about telescopes

Blurry picture of the second bear

Ten Lakes Pass

Half Moon Meadow

Day 7: Ten Lakes to White Wolf

After spending half an hour trying to locate the trail amongst the dozens of well-trampled use trails, our route climbed up over Ten Lakes Pass, down through Half Moon Meadow, and up a broad, forested ridge.

Soon after the trail joined the Middle Tuolumne River, I heard a loud rustling to my left. I looked over and saw a young bear climbing out of the river gully. It was a beautiful shade of reddish brown, and had that rolling, swishy gait that made it look like a henna pom-pom. I continued on, congratulating myself on my first bear sighting in five years of backpacking the Sierras, when I saw a second bear only ten minutes later!

Finally back at the cars, we cleaned up a little and drove back to PJ's for hamburgers. High Sierra Food Critic says: "They had food. No de-hy. Five stars."

Dirty and smelly

Last modified: Fri Dec 23 22:06:01 2005