Yosemite National Park

Leaving the Bay area, we drove straight east across California to Yosemite and the Sierra Nevadas. This was somewhat unfortunate timing in our trip - Yosemite is in the middle of containing the Rim Fire, a wildfire that has more or less shut down the northwestern area of the park. After passing through the Central Valley (where there are almond trees everywhere), we had to detour because of the fire. Highway 120, which leads through Yosemite to the famous Tioga Pass, was closed on the west side of the park.

The smoky road up the Sierra Nevadas near Yosemite

We had to drive about 40 miles north to take the Sonora Pass across the mountains, then drive south and back into the park from the east over Tioga Pass. Sonora Pass was much slower and windier than Tioga, but despite the extra time and miles, we made it to Yosemite.

Tioga Pass winding along the mountainside

Due to the fire, we could not access the western part of the park - including the famous Yosemite Valley and Half Dome. We camped in the Tuolumne Meadows area, a high valley on the east side.

That afternoon, we hiked up Lembert's Dome. Despite Half Dome being the most-famed dome hike, domes are all over the park, formed by smooth, polishing glacial action on one side and rough, eroding glacial action on the other. I was amazed by the hike - it was so neat to walk along these huge rock structures way up in the air. Everything about it - the formation, rock types, geology - was so neat! It's a surreal feeling to be on top of one. The hike was tough, too: we were hiking up from 9,000 ft to almost 10,000 ft, which made it distinctly harder to breathe or have any endurance at all.

For scale, look for the people on the rock in the center of the picture!

The fire affected us here, too. It was easy to make out the outlines of mountains and forests along the skyline, but the view was predominantly one of smoke. We would learn later that the mornings were clear as could be, but smoke would generally start filling the Tuolumne Meadows valley around 2 or 3 PM.

The smoky view

The next morning, we got a late start due to the cold: the temperature was around 35 F both mornings we were there. We set out on the Glen Aulin trail, which winds along a river through the valley. It was a spectacular trail and one of the best hikes we have done on the trip!

The trail through the meadows crossed some beautiful views as well as huge granite slabs. The meadows were golden and dry; the forest was piney, sandy, and dry. The neat part was again admiring the granite outcroppings - the trail and riverbed would change seemingly arbitrarily from sandy forest to pure granite and back.

The High Sierra forest

Lembert Dome (the previous day's hike) from afar

Tuolumne Meadows

Trail crossing a granite slab

Near the end of the trail, the river became steep, and the trail opened up to views of the surrounding mountains. This remote stream was breathtaking, almost like it was out of a movie.

Just from this limited and hazy visit to Yosemite, I really liked it - it ranks with Glacier as one of the top national parks I've seen so far. The beauty here was unreal, and I want to visit again to see the famed valley when the fires calm down.

From here, we packed up and left around 6:30 AM the day after hiking Glen Aulin: next stop, Vegas!