Yosemite High Country and Eastern Sierra
Saturday-Tuesday 18-21 June, 2022
The Big Day, the Big Hike--Monday, 20 June, 2022
Mono Lake from the summit of Mt. Dana.
Map of our long, steep hike.
Before sunrise, we looked up at the silhouette of the imposing closer point above the parking lot, with Jupiter (maybe Mars?) beside it. To reach the peak, we would need to hike much higher than this. We have struggled unsuccessfully to find a name for this point. Since we found out from Wikipedia that the Tioga Pass was incongruously named after Tioga County, NY, Eric decided to call this peak "Algonquin Point." Photo by Eric.
We set out among these kettle ponds in the early morning light. Kettle ponds like this form when chunks of ice are left behind by a retreating glacier and buried under sediment. Eventually the chunks melt, leaving behind these depressions that fill with water. [SOURCE: Geology Underfoot in Yosemite National Park, Glazner & Stock] Photo by Eric.
At first, below the tree line, we hiked along this pretty trail through these conifers, looking up at "Algonquin Point." Photo by Eric.
Yosemite geologist Greg Stock had told us that Mt. Dana, and nearby Mt. Gibbs, were remnants of the original Long Valley volcano.
Early morning light over Mt. Gibbs.
The sun climbed over Mt. Dana and the alpenglow struck Mt. Gibbs beyond.
As the trail rose steeply, Eric was able to photograph Mather, with the Weeble atop, near the Yosemite entrance station.
As we climbed above the tree line onto an open plain, Eric photographed the sun rising over the ridge.
The sun was still low as we passed "Algonquin Point." Photo by Eric.
The beauty of rocks along the trail struck us.
We were drawn to small details, like this frost. In the early morning chill, it crunched under our boots.
Eric photographed the morning frost on this unidentified lettuce-like plant that we had also seen at Mt. Tallac the week before.
As you might guess from the frost, it was a cold day. I was wearing an Icebreaker base layer, a Norwegian wool sweater, and a windbreaker, and I wished, in spite of the weight, that I had brought my down jacket instead. As I estimated such a long day, I was carrying 4.5 liters of water, whereas I had trained with only 3. I did carry my DSLR, but we had shed as much excess weight from our bags as we thought we could possibly afford.
Wildflowers were abundant. I think these might be a kind of sunflower. Photo by Eric.
Alpine Lupin. Photo by Eric.
Unidentified flower.
Granite Gilla.
Spreading Phlox (I think).
Streamside Bluebell.
Pretty but unidentified flower.
At last, we rose high enough on the ridge that we could see the actual peak ahead of us. Photo by Eric.
As we began the final climb up the peak, Eric photographed the easier part of the trail below.
We spent arduous hours following a sometimes ambiguous switchbacking trail up through loose scree. At times, snow covered the trail, and we had to follow a much more difficult route around the snow until we found the somewhat easier going again. It took 7.5 hours from our 5:10 start, but at last, triumphantly, we reached the peak! Photo by another hiker.
We were so high up in the sky! Mono Lake beyond "Algonquin Point." We have seen the lake so many times before, and would easily recognize this aerial view from maps, but we have never seen it like this before!
So many beautiful, remote lakes are nestled in the Sierra Nevada. I'm not sure these little lakes are even on the map. Some of them only even came into view as we approached the peak.
Tioga Lake.
Mono Craters from up above, with the White Mountains beyond. We could see across the entire width of Mono County and well into Nevada!
Eric found the USGS marker and took a picture.
We spent about an hour so far up, having our lunch, enjoying the view, and chatting with other hikers. On the way up, we had met Judy, who had been on the Mono Lake photo workshop with me a month before. Her sister had come out from Delaware to celebrate Judy's 62nd birthday with her and hike up the mountain. Judy was excited to have purchased her Golden Age park pass. We also met Mary Anne and her husband, from Walnut Creek. Mary Anne was on a Sea and Mountain agenda and had climbed several peaks already. Her explorations had also brought her to Stinson Beach, the site of several of our training hikes up Mt. Tamalpais. Most impressive was a group of five young hikers from San Jose and Fremont. Dana was their third peak in three days, after Cloud's Rest and White Mountain. For the Fourth of July weekend, they were planning to hike Mt. Whitney, the tallest in California, in one day, and hike two other nearby peaks. One of them was the group leader, and another said the other four were crazy and that he was not going with them on the Fourth of July trip. Eric told him that he was super impressive even if he had trouble keeping up with the others. One of the women in this group suggested that I walk sideways down the scree, which was very helpful advice.
It was 13:35 before we began the perilous descent. It was a difficult, sideways descent down many switchbacks of loose rock. I followed the advice of the other hiker, continuing to face the same direction as I went descended the switchbacks so that I used both legs equally. The forecast had promised sun, but clouds had moved in, leaving us more vulnerable to mountain winds.
We met hikers who were still on the ascent. There was a couple who had done the hike twenty years earlier and were excited about reaching the peak again. Most impressive was a family of four from Fremont, who had just bought a GPS and begun geocaching. The children were elementary school age, and climbing this giant mountain!
Eric spotted a marmot in the rocks. I also saw a pika.
On the descent, it was easier to follow the trail through the patches of snow, although the snow found its way into my boots.
My estimation that it would take us until 17:00 to descend down the peak onto the larger part of the mountain turned out to be a bit overly pessimistic. But it was still many hours down the relatively easy larger, flatter part of the mountain. Our toes rammed into the fronts of our boots, and our feet ached. The open plain just seemed to go on forever.
We continued to meet hikers, much tougher than we, who were just now ascending the trail. One hiker had done a solo ascent up Mt. Shasta the week before. A group of three was heading up to watch the sunset from the summit, removing invasive plants along the way.
We were more than ready to reach Mather and remove our boots when we finally reached the tree line around 18:45. Yet we still had more distance to descend through the trees. It was lovely, but we were exhausted from our triumph.
The kettle ponds beautifully reflected the mountain above us. Photo by Eric.
At last, after 14 hours and 20 minutes, as the sun was beginning to set over hte peak, we reached the trailhead. With our pre-dawn start, we had managed to return 50 minutes before sunset! We had safely achieved the hike!
With a mix of excitement and exhaustion, we found the earth geocache at the trailhead. Eric found a plaque commemorating Stephen Mather, namesake of our car.
We were relived, as we were driving away, to see the man from the couple who were redoing the hike 20 years later. They told us that the family of four was safe and not far behind them.
We stopped to photograph the majestic volcanic remnant of Mt. Dana over Tioga Lake in the falling sun. On the left of the photo, you can see the steep peak, that took us so many hours to climb and descend, looking like a tiny pimple on top of the mountain. We felt so much pride at having achieved the summit. What an incredible experience!
Tenaya Lake--Tuesday, 21 June, 2022
We planned another vacation day to recover from the climb up Mt. Dana. After so much training, and acclimation to the altitude, it seemed a shame to return to sea level rather than climbing more of the many peaks around us! Rather than hiking, we carried out a plan we had made possibly as long as two decades before, to paddle the Weeble on beautiful Tenaya Lake.
Beautiful Tenaya Lake fills a glacier-carved depression west of Tuolumne Meadows, nestled at the foot of Mt. Hoffman. [SOURCE: Geologic Trips: Sierra Nevada, Konigsmark] Near its eastern end, Tenaya Lake, at certain times of year, the remains of trees that died during the Middle Ages stick up out of the lake's surface. Rings in these trees show evidence of past megadroughts, and match other tree ring evidence discovered at Mono Lake and other western sites. This evidence has raised concerns that megadroughts have been a relatively common occurence in this area in the past. [SOURCE: Geology Underfoot in Yosemite National Park, Glazner & Stock]
Map of our Tenaya Lake paddle.
We enjoyed incredible scenery from the moment we put in.
Other paddlers out gawking at the granite.
We were curious about exploring this intriguing inlet, but the Park Service had blocked the entry off with rocks. It is probably just as well, because, when we tried to stop on that side of the lake, we were instantaneously inundated by mosquitoes.
The mosquitoes were not so prevalent on the road side of the lake, so we pulled out on a beach. I went for a brief and brisk swim to cool off the bites I had received on the other side.
After that extraordinarily beautiful paddle, we loaded the Weeble back on top of Mather, and bid our goodbyes to the incredible Sierra Nevada.
Overview map of entire trip.
We had an amazing time for just a short half-week vacation. After so much time and effort training, we take great pride in our success in reaching the summit of Mt. Dana. We experienced stunning beauty on each of the action-packed four days we spent. We are unbelievably lucky to live so close to such geologic wonder.