We drove down to Palo Alto on Friday night and crashed at Michael’s apartment for an early departure on Saturday. This time around it was just Michael and Sam and me since Shannon had too much work, but next time it will definitely have to be at least the 4 of us, maybe James and Karen or Joey and Laurie would also be interested. We left Palo Alto at 8:30 am and pulled up to the park entrance at 11:00 am. The only suggestion I have is to make sure you get gas before you get too close to the park. We waited until the last gas station where regular cost almost $3. There was a gas station on the west side of Groveland that had the best gas prices we saw the whole trip. I would recommend stopping there.
Once we got in the park we did a quick drive through at Hogdon Meadows and Crane Flat campgrounds. Hogdon Meadows didn’t look great, but Crane Flat looked nice, particularly spots around 234? After our campground reconnaisance mission, we headed to Tuolumne Grove and walked around the sequoias for a bit. The trees were impressive, but not something I need to see again. The vistas of the Valley are much more impressive if you’re trying to pack it in.
After the big trees, we drove to Bridaveil Falls for a picnic lunch. This late in the season the falls were just a trickle so there wasn’t much to see, but I would love to see them in early summer. We sat around there for about an hour and started out again around 1:00. Continuing on down to Glacier Point Road, we drove for about another 45 minutes up to the Sentinel Dome trail head. We started off down the trail to Sentinel Dome, which is a mile out and spent about 30 minutes checking out the views, which were amazing. It’s a great vantage point for orienting yourself in the valley. We walked to Glacier Point after that (another 1.5 miles downhill). I was less impressed with Glacier Point. It’s the end of GP Road and there is a large parking lot there with tour buses and tons of tourists and information centers. The views of Half Dome were great, but the hordes were a bit much. It was also amazing how hard it was to get back up the hill because of the altitude. Next time I would love to head to Taft Point after Sentinel Dome and would like to time it for sunset.
We headed down from Glacier Point at 4:30 and got to the campground at around 5:30. I had called the day reservations opened at 9:30 am and there were only 2 sites in the Valley left. We lucked out and got a site in Lower Pines on the Merced River (site #43). The campground was pretty packed and the spots are all pretty close together and aren’t very private, but I think we may have gotten the best spot in the valley. We were backed up on the Merced River with a pretty big, flat spot. We were close enough to the bathrooms/garbages that they were convenient, but they weren’t right on our spot. We could see North Pines campers across the river, but all in all it was fairly isolated. We had a great view of the sunset on Half Dome. Some other spots that might be good to try in the Valley would be the even 130s or the even 500s in North Pines. After a dinner of burritos (yummy camp food!) we played dice. After a while our fire had died down enough for smores and hot chocolate. Then it was time for early bedtime at 10:30.
The next morning we woke up before 7:00 and started packing up. After a breakfast of instant oatmeal and instant coffee we headed out. We need to take real coffee up next time, that instant stuff is for the birds. We had packed up and were headed out of camp at 8:00. It took us a while to find the Half Dome trail head parking but we finally made our way there and got on the trail by 8:30. To get to the parking lot, take a right out of Lower Pines to go out of the campground road, then take a left at the stop sign. The parking lot is less than a mile from the trail head so walking isn’t a problem.
We left the parking lot at 8:30 and headed up Mist Trail alongside Vernal Falls and then Nevada Falls. Vernal Falls was tough with over 600 granite steps to conquer and it took us about an hour to get to the top of this one. Then we started in on Nevada Falls, which winds a bit away from the actual falls. It feels easier since you aren’t going straight up the side as much as winding around. This part took us an additional 30 minutes, so we reached the start of the Half Dome trail at 11:00. After 30 minutes of flat ground, the trail started its upward climb again for the last 3 miles or so. This part was killer, but an hour later we reached the last ridge and saw the top, which was a great mental boost. The views from this part are gorgeous. As you emerge from the trees you get your first good look at the back of Half Dome and the cables. We stopped and had lunch in a little rocky outcropping, which is where we discovered how cold it was up top. Only 15 minutes before we had been making fun of other climbers with their layers of clothes and gloves. I guess they got the last laugh. Sam and Michael were in shorts and sweatshirts. I was bundled up but given my poor internal temperature control, I was freezing too. This may have been where we saw the first snow flakes, and it was definitely where our fingers turned numb. Hint for the future: do not try to make and eat PB&J out of the protection of the trees. Yikes!
As soon as we finished eating we started back on the trail to the cables if only to get warm from moving again. Unfortunately there had been a helicopter flying around in a rescue mission and they had finally landed it just at the base of the cables and were loading the guy on so as soon as we started we were turned back and told it would be about 30 minutes or so. Everybody hung out at the bottom there until the guy was lifted out (hanging 150 ft below the chopper). When the helicopter took off, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees with all the higher air being pushed down. A few minutes later the helicopter was gone and we started up, just to be met by the ranger telling people that a snow storm was moving in fast. Given that we didn’t have any rain gear and were all freezing our butts off, we took his word for it and turned right around. It was the right decision to make, but having to make it ticked me off. Not only were we within sight, but we had just spent an hour waiting around to summit. It was definitely the right choice though.
We started back down around 12:30 and the snow flakes just seemed to keep following us and multiplying as we went down. At one point we started running down the trail to try and get down as fast as we could and to warm up a bit. We finally lost the snow at the top of the falls at about 2, but by then it had turned to rain so we were faced with going down the way we had come up which would be dangerous in the rain or tacking another mile and a half onto the trip by going down the less steep and less dangerous John Muir trail. We again went with prudence and started down John Muir. At about this point, my legs and will power just about gave up. It took forever to get down the last part of the trail and we finally made it back to the car at around 3:30. I would definitely do this hike again, but next time everybody should take a day pack so that we have enough warm clothes and rain gear. Hats and gloves would be a smart idea too.
We made it back on the road around 4:30 and pulled into Arbutus at 9:00 after a Wendy’s stop in Manteca at about 6:30-7:00. Important to know, Merced (the first town you hit on the way back) has about every fast food and Starbucks, except for Wendy’s and In and Out. If you need Wendy’s and can hold out, you only have to get a little further to Manteca.
Next trip should be soon—maybe after the CFA?
