Yosemite National Park August 10-16, 2003
Sunday, August 10 we drove to within 2 miles of the park entrance to the Sunset Inn our lodgings for our first three days. Sunset Inn is a set of cute little cottages set in a secluded ponderosa pine forest. The owners grow their own farm fresh eggs from a batch of unusual hens. After unpacking we drove into the park and hiked the Upper Yosemite Falls. We didn’t start our hike until 4:30 PM but managed to make the 7 mile round trip hike with a 2700 foot elevation gain in about three and a half hours. We were the last people on the trail except for two Germans in flip flops who were having quite a time on the slippery rocky trail. Yosemite Falls was barely a trickle in the lower section but had a moderate flow on the upper section. On the trail we came within two feet of a MacGillivray’s warbler. We also saw stellar’s jay, raven, dark-eyed junco, white-throated swift, anna’s hummingbird, and canyon wren.
On the way back we stopped at Crane Flat to get gas and I saw a great grey owl and a pileated woodpecker. I heard a great horned owl. I also nearly ran over a mountain quail.
On Monday we drove to Glacier Point. My quadriceps were screaming from the previous day’s scramble up Upper Yosemite Falls and my sister’s gluteous maximus muscles were sore. But we still managed to hike 2.2 RT to the fantastic Taft Point. We got there early and so only saw a handful of people on the precipitous points and fissures that drop dramatically into the valley floor. We returned to the trailhead and then hiked another 2.2 miles RT to Sentinel Dome. The views from the summit are spectacular. I tried to figure out a way to frame a photo around the Jeffrey Pine that I had heard about Ansel Adams making famous but couldn’t figure it out so I just took a picture of the grey colored pine tree. (Later I learned that the famous photo had been taken while the tree was alive and that it had just fallen two days before our arrival). We had lunch at the amphitheater at Glacier Point. There were many bees in this area distracting us from the great views of Half Dome. We next took the Panoramic Trail to Illilouette Falls and to the bridge over its source. We had intended to make it all the way to Panoramic Point but our aches and pains were increasing with the hours. On our return hike up the grueling return we saw a bear’s butt, well I did. My sister didn’t see it as it scampered away. The Panoramic Trail is just flat out gorgeous with non stop photo opportunities of Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls and Half Dome in various angles. Many birds are attracted to this area and we saw flocks of MacGillivray’s warblers and Nashville warblers as well as red-breasted and white-breasted nuthatches, flickers, western wood peewee, and an intimate look at a blue grouse hen with her chicks.
On Tuesday, we hiked the Mist Trail past Vernal Falls, Nevada Falls, Little Yosemite Valley and on up to the top of Half Dome. There weren’t too many people considering how popular this hike is. It’s 17 miles RT and 4800 foot elevation gain but we made it, my fourth time and my sister’s first. Despite our fatigue we took out the telescope and looked at bright Mars at a pull out at Big Meadow and watched a few meteors in the Perseid Meteor Shower. We slept well that night at Sunset Inn.
On Wednesday, we checked out of our little cottage. I forgot my special pillow and had to use an old camp pillow at our lodging for the next three nights, Tuolumne Meadows. We drove Tioga Road to Tuolumne Meadows and set up our camp at the campground there. We were too tired for anything difficult and I was looking for a better pillow so we drove into Lee Vining and checked out a camp store there and beautiful Mono Lake. We walked around the South Tufa Reserve where we learned about the salinity level and the lowering lake level and saw many sage thrahers, brewer’s sparrows, California gulls and one red-necked phalarope. When we got back to camp we had a second wind and decided to hike up to Elizabeth Lake. It’s a pretty little lake with Unicorn Peak for a back drop but the lighting was all wrong. This hike is best done early in the morning and not in the evening as we did it.
Thursday, we hiked the incredibly beautiful trail to Glen Aulin and the famous Waterwheel Falls. This trail leaves from Tuolumne Meadows and follows the Tuolumne River (ruined by the hideous dam at Hetch Hetchy but thankfully miles past the famous waterfalls) past three beautiful waterfalls. The trail culminates after a relatively easy eight miles at the famous Waterwheel Falls which drop seemingly forever over colorful rocks and on into the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. We were surprised that there weren’t very many people but lots of birds. We saw yellow-rumped warblers, cassin’s finch, mountain bluebird, orange-crowned warbler, red-tailed hawk, prairie falcon, red crossbills, robin, hermit warbler, chipping sparrow, Williamson’s sapsucker, black phoebe, killdeer, spotted sandpiper, violet-green swallow, mountain chickadee, American dipper, and white-crowned sparrow on the trail and in the Meadow. That night at camp a bear found an enticing backpack lying about in the camp site next to ours. I heard the guy cajoling the bear for the return of his pack with no luck. The bear started dragging the pack past our tent causing my sister to awake in alarm. It stumbled as it struggled to drag the pack away. I insisted that my sister get out of the tent. The next day she asked me why and I said it was for safety reasons but later I had to admit that it was really so she could see a bear.
Friday, we hiked Saddlebag Lake to the Twenty Lakes Basin. The lake was surrounded by wild flowers and there was an abundance of birds as well. My sister was not very interested in the green tailed towhee at Saddlebag Lake which she called “ugly.” You can by-pass the lake by taking a boat across. I thought it was nice to see all the flowers and birds but each to their own.
Saturday we took down the tent and packed our gear and left Tuolumne Meadows. We had intended to hike Merced Grove because my sister wanted to see the big trees. We stopped at Tuolumne Grove to use the bathroom and made the mistake of hiking in there instead. There were too many people and not enough big trees. In fact, it was quite pitiful (after seeing all the great wonderful groves of Giant Sequoias in Sequoia National Park) in that there were only five Sequoias. One had a gaping hole in it where cars used to drive through (I believe I drove my 1986 Dodge Daytona through it before they closed the trail to motorized use) and another had fallen a few years ago. It was quite sad and the people were annoying. On the drive out of Tioga Road we stopped at Olmstead Point and hiked the short trail to the overlook and took a few pictures. It was hot on the drive back to San Francisco. We stopped to buy some corn from a farmer and he was too hot so he just gave us the rest of his corn, about 15 ears for two dollars. The corn was great and we also stopped at another stand and got some great peaches. It was my sister’s first visit to Yosemite and I bet she will be back.
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