Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley, via Sunrise Lakes and Clouds Rest — Yosemite NP — October 2018
This is a relatively short, 3 day hike that I did with a special group of guys. There were 4 of us, and we planned to hike from Tuolumne to Yosemite Valley with a jaunt up to Half Dome. Not all of us made it there, but that’s not important to the trip report.
The permitting was straightforward even though it was Columbus Day weekend and this was probably due to the fact that we wanted to start at Tuolumne and then end at Happy Isles. If it were the other way around, it likely wouldn’t have been as easy. The hike was point-to-point and done with two cars, making the logistics easy.
Overall, the hike was beautiful. Yosemite in the fall is special: the weather is beautiful in the day, slightly chilly at night, and the open fields are full of gold carpets of grass. The leaves have changed to their fall colors in most of the mid-high elevations, and there’s still plenty of water to be had in some of the larger creeks and rivers.
The only difficulty we encountered was due to the fact that we got a late-start which forced us to rush. The second day was long, and the last 2–3 miles or so were a 2000 foot slog up back to our campground that was done in the dark while very hungry, very tired, and very thirsty. This was not fun, led me to one of my most exhausted states I have ever been: too cold and tired to think, and even too tired to eat once I was back at camp.
We started at Tuolmne Meadows around 11am. The first leg to Sunrise Lakes is something like 8 miles or so. The best part of this day was being able to walk in the shadow of Cathedral Peak with it’s claw-like shape and the gold fields of grass everywhere. It was a definitive California-Autumn scene.
We then continued on a pretty slow pace up to Sunrise Lakes. We unfortunately didn’t get to camp until after dark. After having a dinner of marinaded steak, one of the most unreal scenes I’ve ever seen transpired before our eyes. We looked up into the incredibly dark sky and found a saw something in the sky that looked like a UFO. I’ve never had a feeling come over me where my mind immediately jumped to and justified such an implausible thing, but I wasn’t the only one who did it! It looked like a small ship with a bright halo around it. Then there was a large blue circle around that, and a huge tint of red reflecting against one of the mountains. It was such a bizarre scene that I feel ridiculous for typing it out.
I woke up early to check out the sunrise because there must be some crazy sunrises at Sunrise Lake. I ended up not even looking at the lake, and ended up perched on top of cliff, looking eastward at the sea of granite before me. This is what the Yosemite region is known for, and this was one of the first times I’d gotten to see it like that.
After the guys got up and we got moving, it was almost 10am…way too late given the day ahead. We had planned to hike up to around Clouds Rest, set up camp, and then continue on without packs to Half Dome and then return to camp. This wouldn’t have been an issue if we would have started at 8am…but we didn’t. Our slow pace continued and we didnt get to set up camp at Clouds Rest until about Noon. One of our guys decided to leave the crew without a map, so another one of ours went back to chase him which blew another hour or so. All in all, we didn’t leave to Half Dome until almost 2pm, and we totally underestimated the hike from our camp to Half Dome. It was 4 miles each way with significant elevation gain and loss.
Nonetheless, the hike was gorgeous both there and back. The view from Clouds Rest is phenomenal, allowing you to look up the Tenaya Canyon on one side and then towards the vast granite yosemite region to the south east. Clouds Rest is a great example of an arete, which is a sharp mountain ridge that had glaciers carving it on both sides, yielding the narrow, knife blade of a ridge that is left today.
We made it to the top of Half Dome, which was my first time there, and unfortunately the entire valley was full of smoke or haze. It was my first time, and i was pretty disappointed, but you can’t win them all. We then marched back to camp, with half the hike being during beautiful golden hour, and then the other half in the dark.
Day 3 just called for a nice stroll down-hill into Yosemite Valley — about a 10 mile walk from our camp. It was nice to be going downhill given the brutal night we had before. We got another beautiful view from Clouds Rest and then walked the Mist Trail down all the way to Happy Isles. The other guys in our party had not done this trail and it was their first time seeing the domes and the falls from far away, and then up close.
