Backpacking Yosemite — Glacier Point to Dewey Point
This post is part of the “Backpacking Yosemite” Series. If you haven’t done so yet, please start reading the overview post:
Rushing to Glacier Point
We’re still on day 5 of our trip, driving from our half-day hike through the Mariposa Grove directly to Glacier Point. We’re in a bit of a hurry because we have to hike at least to the Bridalveil Creek bridge until the sun sets, as wilderness camping is not allowed in the area around Glacier Point. That’s about 8 kilometers (5 miles) with quite a bit of elevation gain, but it turned out to be doable.
We arrived at Glacier Point around 3 pm, parked our car there and unloaded our food into one of the bear-proof lockers. We knew we would only spend one night in the wilderness during this trip, so we packed our bags accordingly.
The Pohono Trail
After enjoying the stunning view for a few minutes, we head off following the Pohono Trail. It’s a beautiful trail along Yosemite Valley’s south rim, connecting two of the most popular places: Tunnel View and Glacier Point.
We hiked counter-clockwise around the Sentinel Dome, which we would climb on our way back tomorrow. After a steep uphill section we passed the Roosevelt Point, rewarding us with a panoramic view of the Valley. But this was only the first of many stunning locations along this trail.
Continuing towards the Taft Point, we passed a couple that was dressed like bride and groom as well as some folks escorting them. They must have hiked the same way that we did, quite an accomplishment wearing a long white wedding dress…
Ceremony at Taft Point
Soon enough Taft Point came into view, and I can’t even describe how amazed we were! I have never experienced or more beautiful place, and selecting just a few photos to show you here is a challenging task. When thinking about our Yosemite trip, this location is always the first one that comes to my mind.
We took a rest here, ate some snacks and enjoyed the scenery. A few minutes later, the bridal couple that we passed earlier arrived. And sure enough, they started a small wedding ceremony at the very edge of Taft Point! The handful of people that were around watched it and after exchanging rings the groom thanked us for making it to his wedding. Sure thing!
As you can tell from the photos, the sun was already about to start setting and we still had about an hour of hiking in front of us. So we got ready for the last trail section for the day, which luckily was downhill only.
Night at the Bridalveil Creek
Once we arrived, we found a nice little campground with a fireplace. Unfortunately we couldn’t use it, as it was forbidden during that time to prevent more wildfires. The Bridalveil Creek next to our camp seemed to be a nice spot for a timelapse, so I set up my DSLR right in the middle to capture the night sky.
This night turned out to be on of the coldest during our trip. When we woke up in the morning, we found our drinking water completely frozen in our bottles. Marvin and Robert couldn’t get much sleep, because they were freezing in their not-so-well-suited sleeping bags.
Breakfast at Dewey Point
Before hiking back to Sentinel Dome, we wanted to reach Dewey Point and rest there to eat some breakfast. We decided to leave our tents setup at the campground, as we would come back the same way in a few hours. That saved us some weight and we reached Dewey Point in just about an hour.
We brought some canned food, beef jerky and bread. It felt good to finally warm up after the cold night. We started to appreciate the extremely wide view of the valley and spotted our next goal for today far in the distance. The Sentinel Dome is right next to Glacier Point, our trail head from yesterday.
Climbing Sentinel Dome
We left at around noon, picked up our stuff from our campground at the Bridalveil Creek bridge and hiked past Taft Point until we reached the Sentinel Dome. This time, we used the trail that leads around the south-east of the dome, allowing us to actually climb on top of it.
At an elevation of about 2,500 meters (1.5 miles), we found ourselves exposed to a quite cold breeze! We didn’t spent too much time on there and continued our way back to Glacier Point. Reaching our car at around 4 pm after a steep downhill section, we realized how beautiful and rewarding the Pohono trail was.
In hindsight, this was my favorite hike during our trip. If you happen to be at Yosemite and don’t have as much time to explore it as we did, I highly recommend hiking from Glacier Point to Taft Point. It wasn’t too challenging but packed with stunning views along the trail.
Robert and Marvin decided that they wouldn’t want to spend one more night in Yosemite without warmer sleeping bags, so we stopped at the outdoor shop in the Valley to get some proper gear.
Our next night would be at the Tuolumne Meadows Campground, but that’s part of another story (coming soon).
Thanks for reading along. If you want some additional details about this trail, check this out. Please feel free to comment if you have any questions or suggestions.
