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Yosemite National Park

I usually go to the GMT Weekend at the Warehouse, which is held once in the spring and once in the fall. It's a wargame convention at GMT Games in Hanford California, which is in the Central Valley about thirty five miles south of Fresno. Although it's a long way I always drive and as with all my trips for wargaming, I try to figure out a way to get in some hiking somewhere along the way. Since the Sierras are close by I figure it's a great opportunity to visit them. Unfortunately since the weekends for the con are always in April and October, the weather usually doesn't cooperate. I've gone seven or eight times over the past few years and there was only one time that there was nice weather in the mountains.

...until this fall. A week before I left Boise I checked the weather for the trip down to Hanford. The forecast was for fine weather all week. I wasn't sure that it would hold but I took along everything I would need to take advantage if it did. Besides my wargames I packed my boots, daypack and hiking clothes.

Even my schedule at GMT worked out. Usually it's pretty dead there on Sunday. Most people leave after the big sale and pizza dinner on Saturday and that includes me. Since there isn't much chance to game I usually leave first thing on Sunday and spend the day driving home. This time I had a couple of games scheduled with my friend Larry Davidson. Since he only has a two hour drive to get home we were able to play until mid afternoon on Sunday. I got an extra game session in and still had time to drive to someplace near the mountains to spend the night.

I knew where I wanted to go. Although Hanford is close to Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park, I decided to go to Yosemite instead. Sandy and I had been there the previous fall and there was one hike I wanted to do that we didn't have time for on that trip - Sentinel Dome. Ever since then I had been waiting for a chance to get back to Yosemite to do that hike. Finally I had a perfect opportunity.

Although the weather forecast for the Sierras looked perfect for the whole week I didn't have much time. Sandy had a conference in Northern Idaho the following weekend and we had made arrangements to go up early to spend some free time there. My plan was to spend the day in Yosemite National Park and then drive all the way home afterwards. It meant that I would get home late, maybe even very late. Even then I would only have one day before Sandy and I flew out again on Wednesday. But just one day in Yosemite, especially when the weather was perfect, would be awesome and well worth the effort.

As magnificent a place as Yosemite is it's often overrun by crowds, which seriously detracts from the enjoyment of a visit there. In fact it can be a total zoo. Spring is busy because the waterfalls are at their highest flows. Summer is crowded because it's the best time for hiking in the high country and it's summer vacation time for families. Since it was October I was hoping things wouldn't be too bad. Sandy and I had good luck the previous year on late season visits to Grand Canyon and Arches, two other national parks that are always very crowded in high season.

It was a good indication when the day before I left Hanford I was able to get a reservation at a hotel in Mariposa, a town in the Sierra foothills on the main road leading into Yosemite. Even the rate was pretty reasonable. I got to the hotel around dinner time on Sunday, checked in, and spent two hours wandering around town. It wasn't very big. Downtown was a two block stretch of shops, most of them either high-end, artsy-fartsy type art galleries or really cheap souvenir shops. There wasn't much in between, except for one place where I did find a really nice Yosemite tshirt. When I travel I gotta get a tshirt.

After dinner at Pizza Factory I spent the evening going over my hiking guidebooks. To make the most of the time that I had I wanted to start as early as possible and be on the trail at first light. Although Mariposa was the closest town of any size to Yosemite I still had about an hour and a half of driving on winding roads to get to the trailhead. After checking what time sunrise would be and doing the arithmetic it meant getting up at 5 am.

I went to bed early to try to get a reasonable night's sleep but it didn't do any good. I'm a night person. I was just laying there for hours trying to fall asleep. It's not something you can will yourself to do.

Even though I didn't get much sleep I was still up early without my alarm. I was psyched about spending the day in Yosemite. I had everything possible ready the night before so it wasn't long till I was on the road. It was definitely an early start. It was pitch dark and it felt like it was still the middle of the night.

I was hoping that since it was so early and there wasn't any traffic I would do better than the Google Maps time driving to the park. Actually I did worse. It eally was a winding road and I had to take it slowly. There was one section through a narrow canyon where a landslide had damaged the road and it was only one lane. I had to wait about ten minutes at a traffic signal before I could go through. Not exactly where I would expect to get stuck at a red light for so long. Or when for that matter.

I was going to hike up Sentinel Dome, a granite formation on the south rime of the Valley opposite Yosemite Falls. One option was to start from the valley floor, which was longer and had a lot of elevation gain. The other choice was to take the road to Glacier Point and start from a point near the rim. I opted for the second option. I would have liked to hike from the valley but this gave me a lot more time for other activities. It would also let me go to Glacier Point, an amazing viewpoint that I hadn't visited for twenty years. Or maybe that was all just rationalization for taking the easy route.

I stopped briefly at the Tunnel View turnout. The sun wasn't up yet but the sky was just starting to lighten and the major features of the valley, like Half Dome and El Capitan, were silhouetted against the dawn. Further along I drove through the area where there had been a major forest fire this summer that closed the park for a few days. It was a sad to see so much destruction of the forest. Because crews were working along the road to clear the debris, it held me up for a while again.

Eventually I reached the trailhead just a few miles before the end of the road at Glacier Point. The parking lot was small and only held about twenty cars. In summer you wouldn't even think about getting a spot here but now the lot was empty. The sun hadn't reached the parking area yet and since I was at 7700 feet it was definitely cold out. I had warm clothes and there was no wind so as soon as I started hiking I warmed up quickly.

It wasn't long before I got a view of Sentinal Dome. Although the sun hadn't reached the ridge where I was walking, the dome was in bright sunshine. It was a beautiful sight. I could also see that it wasn't very far. It was a short hike - only two miles each way. It took me less than an hour to reach the top. I met three people coming down just below the summit. They must have started really early.

The last section wasn't on a trail. I just went up the granite side of the dome. It was like doing a Utah canyonlands slickrock hike. It wasn't very steep so it wasn't too difficult.

The view from the top was amazing. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. To the east I could see Half Dome, the view similar to that from nearby Glacier Point. It's one of my favorite mountains in the whole world but the sun was rising directly behind it so pictures weren't possible. The top of Sentinel Dome is also famous for sunset views though and then the light on Half Dome would be perfect.

The best light at this time of the morning was to the north, looking across to the other side of Yosemite Valley. Directly opposite was the large cliff where Yosemite Falls drops from the rim. Usually. It was completely dry this late in the year, a big change from when Sandy and I hiked to the top of the falls a year and a half before. Lost Arrow Spire clearly stood out. The light came at just the right angle so that the main cliff was still in shadow but the Spire was in bright sunlight. Beautiful.

Beyond the rim were the peaks of the northern part of the park around Tuolomne Meadows. Later in the day I would drive through that area when I went over Tioga Pass on my way home. I could clearly see Mt. Hoffman, a ten thousand foot peak that I had climbed with my sons, Tim and Mickey, way back in 1999. To the northeast I could see North Dome rising above the upper end of Yosemite Valley across from Half Dome and Clouds Rest. Sandy and I had hiked to the top on her first visit to Yosemite in 2012.

Sentinal Dome was an amazing three hundred and sixty degree viewpoint. The summit area was quite large so besides admiring the view I spent a while trying to figure out which boulder or rock outcrop was the absolute highest point. To be safe I climbed up pretty much all of them.

It was a quick hike back to the car. There were options for extending the hike, like walking to Glacier Point as an alternative to driving, or making a loop to Taft Point for a view of El Capitan. I went straight back to the car since my time in the park was limited.

On the way to Glacier Point I stopped at a viewpoint. There was a clear view of Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls in Little Yosemite Valley. It was the route I had taken the first time that I climbed Half Dome. The only other people there were a family from Scotland. They asked me if I knew the name of a particular mountain and when I told them they started asking me all sorts of questions. I guess I missed my calling as a tour guide to the mountains.

It was around ten by the time I reached Glacier Point and it was already crowded, at least by late fall standards. I spent half an hour walking around. The view of Half Dome from there is unbelievable. The second time that I climbed Half Dome, Tim and Mickey and I had started from Glacier Point and took three days to get to the summit and back. I could see our route, which starts by dropping two thousand feet into Little Yosemite Valley before starting to climb up Half Dome. I still remember the long climb back up to Glacier Point with full packs at the end of the trip.

Then it was time for me to drive back down into the Valley. On the way I stopped at Tunnel View again. By now it was crowded, with lots of cars and RV's and even a tour bus. Of course crowded is relative. In the summer you wouldn't even be able to stop here unless you were lucky and came by just as somone else pulled out. In the bright sunshine I could see the classic Tunnel View, one of the most famous views of Yosemite Valley.

Since I was in the park I had to make the short side trip into Yosemite Valley. I stopped to take a walk to a viewpoint for Bridalveil Falls. It was too short for me to dignify it by calling it a hike. The viewpoint provided a good view of the waterfall plunging directly from the rim and free falling over six hundred feet. Although short the walk was pretty, following the stream below the falls as it came down to the Merced River in a series of small cascades. It was a good reminder that besides the massive cliffs and giant waterfalls, there is a lot of beauty in very small things in the forest.

I even went to the general store to check out the souvenirs but I was good and didn't buy a tshirt. Of course, I had already bought one for Sandy and one for me at the Visitor Center at Glacier Point earlier in the morning but I was still proud of myself for showing such restraint.

On my way out of the valley I stopped at the meadow below El Capitan. I walked a short way towards the base and could see lots of rock climbers on the face. They were just tiny specs on such a big wall. I used to rock climb long ago in my youth but I couldn't imagine doing a climb that big, that technically difficult, or with that much exposure. Last summer Alex Honnold free soloed a route on El Capitan called Freerider, climbing it without ropes or any safety equipment, certainly one of the greatest climbing feats of all time. As I stood there looking up at El Capitan it didn't seem like it was humanly possible.

Later I was on the way to Tioga Pass when I saw a law enforcement type Park Ranger (ie a cop) coming up slowly behind me. I was going slightly over the speed limit but he still caught up to me. After following closely for several minutes he turned on his lights and siren. Oh oh. What did I do now? Nothing it turns out. As soon as I pulled over he drove by, turned off his lights, and slowly pulled away. I guess I wasn't going fast enough for him. A quarter of a mile ahead was another car and after following for a while he did the same thing. I figured that would be the last that I saw of him.

...but it wasn't. Several minutes later I caught up to him again, this time stuck behind a pickup/camper that was literally crawling along. Predictably it wasn't long before he turned on his lights and siren again.

...and was completely ignored. Mr. Oblivious drove for a good ten minutes with the Park Ranger behind him with lights flashing and siren blaring. It was a mountain road with lots of curves so there was no way the ranger could get around him safely. Finally we came to a long straight stretch and the ranger passed him and waved at him to pull over. As I drove past the cop was getting out of his truck and he did not look very happy. I could see a ticket for inattentive driving in someone's future.

It was early afternoon when I reached Tuolomne Meadows and the weather was still perfect. I decided to do one more short hike that I had been meaning to do for many years. I stopped at the Dog Lake trailhead and started out for Lembert Dome. This hike was a little longer than the one this morning, two or three miles each way but with a thousand feet of elevation gain so that I did get a little bit of a workout. It took me about an hour to reach the top. This dome was a lot steeper near the top and I actually had to traverse about a quarter of the way around the summit rocks to find the easiest route. It was straight up slickrock but these granite slabs were quite a bit steeper than the ones on Sentinel Dome. It made it feel like a little bit more of an accomplishment when I finally reached the top.

It was another beautiful summit view. I could see Tuolomne Meadows below, Cathedral Peak to the south and Mt. Hoffman from a different angle to the west. To the east was Mt. Dana, a thirteen thousand foot peak, the highest mountain in Yosemite National Park. After doing these two hikes, Mt. Dana is the last "hike in Yosemite National Park that I have to do some day" that I have left. Maybe I will get lucky with the weather when I go to GMT weekend next fall.

On the way down I took the half mile side trip to Dog Lake. I figured that I wouldn't ever come back just to do that hike. Since I'm a dog person the name appealed to me and I couldn't pass it up. It was pretty but not spectacular.

I made it back to the car about 4 pm. There was one part of me wished that I could have stayed for a week. Yosemite is one of my favorite places on Earth. The park was relatively uncrowded, the weather had been perfect and was forecast to stay that way for for at least a week. As it was though I had a long drive home and a short night because the following day I had to get ready for our next trip. Spending one day in the park was a good compromise though. I had an incredible day in Yosemite, I checked off a couple of hikes that were on my "Must Do" list and I had a fun trip to Northern Idaho with Sandy coming up. I couldn't do better than that.