This weekend Steve and Dianna and I went backpacking in Yosemite. We started from Tuolumne meadows at the base of Lembert Dome.
We started west along the Glen Aulin trail, then turned north and headed uphill toward Ragged Peak. The views were the best to the south.
Views in Yosemite typically include big rocks in front of you, trees behind, and a very high horizon beyond.
We continued over a ridge near Ragged Peak and down to the first of the Young Lakes. We didn't have time to reach the upper lake that evening, so we stopped at the lower lake for the night.
Steve had voted for a late start. After estimating the driving and hiking time and adding a sensible margin, I figured we'd barely have time to set up camp before it got dark. And if we didn't use up all of the margin, we'd have extra time to relax in the evening. As it turns out, it's good that we had the margin. We had to wash dishes and bury the food waste in the dark. (Dianna handled the cooking. Thanks, Dianna!)
The Perseids peaked the previous weekend, but the viewing wasn't good because the moon was up so early. We hoped that there'd be a few meteors left this weekend, and the moon didn't come up until 1:00. Our camp had a nice big boulder to lie on with a nice viewing angle to the gap in the trees over our camp. We saw a few tiny meteors and a couple of satellites, and then finally a nice big sparkling meteor. After that we decided it was getting plenty cold, so we headed to our tents.
After it seemed like the light on my tent had been bright enough for long enough, I got up Sunday morning. It was cool, but not cold. Heading away from camp to water the trees, I found a sign warning campers away from a bear lure.
Ragged Peak is appropriately named. Surprisingly, the sun had not yet reached it.
It wasn't until 6:30 that the sun rose high enough to touch the top of the peak.
I went down to the lake to pump some water, and the reflections were so perfect that I had to run back for my camera.
After breakfast, we left our packs at the camp and hiked toward the upper lake. Along the way, we found the creek that fills the lower lake.
As is usual in Yosemite, the climb was steep in places.
A steep part of the trail will often get you above the tree tops, though. In this case, we could see the middle lake below and a sliver of the lower lake farther off.
The upper lake was surrounded by very green grass. At over 10,000 feet elevation, the trees are clearly struggling. Looking back the way we came, it's strange to see no tall trees or mountains in the way of the horizon.
Of course, if we had continued in the same direction, we would still have a ways to climb.
As was the case for all the lakes, the water was very clear.
We headed back down to our camp, packed up, and headed back down. This time we headed more directly south on the Dog Lake trail back to the car. This required climbing once more above 10,000 feet before starting the long descent.
At times, when the trail would break out onto an Alpine-like meadow, I'd break into a song from The Sound of Music.
One of the meadows allowed an excellent panorama from north to east to south. Dianna wasn't fast enough to duck out of frame.
Doe, a deer, a female deer!
On the way down from the last rise, the dust on the trail was very fine, so I was staying a bit further back to stay out of the dust clouds. Somehow this seemed to aggravate my knee, which sometimes pinches a nerve on descents. When Steve and Dianna stopped for a break, I figured I'd better keep going or they'd have to wait for me at the next steep descent. As it turns out, setting my own pace did wonders for my knee. At the bottom, it took them about 10 minutes to catch up again, although I hear they were distracted by a marmot.
Eventually we all made it down. We were glad to see the car.
