Yosemite (Clouds Rest) and Mono Lake - September 3-5, 2011

Seems like Labor Day at Yosemite is becoming an annual event!  Last year at this time, Babe and I hiked Half Dome, so this trip we decided to do Clouds Rest, which is 1000 feet higher in elevation, peaking close to 10,000 feet...a piece of cake after reaching 14,000 feet on the Inca Trail in Peru, right? :)  This would be my third time hiking to Clouds Rest, and Babe's first.

We packed up the car on Saturday morning and started the 4.5 hour drive to Yosemite.  This trip was planned past the 5 month Yosemite campsite reservation release date so everything was full, but we could always depend on finding a spot at Lower Lee Vining Campground, where we had stumbled upon several years ago when we found that the walk-in Yosemite campsites were full.  Probably the reason why this campground had spots available on holiday weekends was the fact that there was no running water, just porta-potties.  Lack of running water may be problematic for families (though an RV helps).  Since we were only staying a couple of nights, this would not be a problem, and we had brought several 1-gallon jugs of water.  Plus, the creek was very close by, making it easy to retrieve water to douse campfires.  When we arrived at the campground, the campsite we used last time was taken (#18, right next to the creek), so we ended up choosing a large one (I think it was #42).  It was probably an RV site as my Lexus GS430 looked pretty dinky in the parking spot, but there didn't seem to be an "RV's only" restriction.

I can't rave enough about my portable Weber Q100 barbecue grill.  This little guy heats up fast, uses blue welder's propane bottles that you can buy at any home improvement store, and cooks a lot of food for its size, only taking up half of my back seat.  The fire ring in our campsite didn't include a grill, so the Q100 came in handy.  I had purchased a package of short ribs from Koreana Market and marinated them in bulgogi sauce, making for a nice BBQ dinner that night, including S'mores cooked by the fire.

I had added to my inventory of camping gear by purchasing a $9.99 butane stove from 99 Ranch.  This one-burner stove could use normal sized frying pans and I was able to easily cook up sausage and eggs on Sunday morning.  After breakfast, we packed sandwiches for lunch and drove 50 minutes into Yosemite, parking near Sunrise trailhead for our 12.8 mile round-trip journey to Clouds Rest.  The trail was rather uncrowded compared to Half Dome last year.  The elevation gain is at least 2000 feet, and for some of the portions, I could definitely feel it, especially in high altitude.  We passed several lakes and had wonderful views all the way up.  Wildflowers were still in bloom, making you feel like it was springtime rather than early September.

one lake

this lake looked filled with wet concrete

wildflowers abloom

ate lunch at this lake

Along the way, we spotted a chipmunk perched on a boulder that did not seem alarmed at our presence.  We decided to take advantage of that:

whatcha looking at?

chipmunk imitation

what are you looking at?

There were three forks in the trail, and unfortunately at the last fork (the final stretch!), I took the wrong way, causing us to hike for an extra 1.5 miles.  There wasn't a sign saying "Clouds Rest", just two signs both saying "Nevada Falls", with one indicating a longer mileage than the other.  I chose the shorter miled route...oops.  Thankfully I had the Yosemite Park map in my backpack to double check our bearings, though I don't know why I didn't think of taking it out before making the decision!  Babe decided we needed to backtrack, then go the right way, getting us to the precarious razorback stairs before the summit.  It wasn't as bad as when I first encountered them over a decade ago, but perhaps experience had jaded me.

at the base of the stairs

top of the summit, view of Half Dome

om

move it more to the left

expansive views

granite galore

Despite the extra detour on the hike, we managed to get back to the campsite before sundown.  We had more short ribs for dinner, along with a baked potato straight from the campfire and of course, S'mores.

Monday morning, we packed up the campsite after breakfast and headed back home via US-395 for a change in scenery.  (I initially planned to do breakfast at the Ahwahnee Hotel, but eventually decided I didn't want to drive into Yosemite Valley on a holiday)  The Mono Lake basin was on the way, so we made a stop at the visitor's center to take in the views.

Mono Lake

the "tufas" used to be a lot taller

We then drove down to the water itself.  Mono Lake is a migratory stop for birds, due to the abundance of food, namely brine shrimp and alkalai flies.  Flies were everywhere on the shoreline. When we'd make a sudden move towards the water, the numerous flies would disperse like a black mist, making a low buzzing sound.

looking at this moving mass of flies gives you goosebumps

dispersal of flies

saline lake has an oily look to it

flowers bloom later in high altitude

more wildflowers

The US-395 route took us to Hwy 88/89, which eventually dumped us on US-50 near Lake Tahoe, which was a bad idea.  So many people (Bay Area folks) were leaving Lake Tahoe at noon; the drive from there that normally took 90 minutes became 2.5 hours...ugh.  One interesting note was that we drove near the location of where Dodge hid the first Journey SUV!  (there were TV commercials and YouTube clues on where to find it)  Too bad we were a couple of days early.

Next trip in a couple of weeks...to Portland, Oregon!  Stay tuned...there will be lots of pictures of food!