Continue past the junction, and follow the trail as it bends to the right to climb up to the base of Cloud’s Rest. The trail climbs back out and continues southwest, coming to a junction with a trail branching off on the right that connects to the John Muir Trail at 4.5 miles. Western white pines join the hemlocks and lodgepole pines, adding a touch more diversity to the forest around you.Īfter the pond, the trail will dip into and out of the drainage of creek, with the crossing coming at 4 miles. At this point, you may notice a subtle shift in the vegetation. After crossing a rocky, open space dotted with stunted aspens beneath the stern gaze of some a granite rock formation, you will reach a small, seasonal pond on your right. On the other side of this junction, the trail drops down the other side of the saddle before resuming a relatively flat stretch along a bench overlooking Tenaya Canyon. Skirt the southern base of the lake past the lake’s outlet and then make a sharp bend to the right to join the Cloud’s Rest Trail. This sparkling lake is a destination in its own right, and casual hikers often follow a popular trail along the banks of the lake. To reach nearly 10,000′ glacial arête (a rock fin caused when glaciers sheer away both sides of a large rock mass), you will want to start at Tenaya Lake, which lies on the south side of Tioga Pass Road. You can do this without a permit, without a permit fee, without having to wait in any kind of line, and with a minute fraction of the 225 or so of your closest friends with whom you’d share Half Dome’s summit. This is a lot of trouble to go through to climb a mountain, especially in a place that is so loaded with mind-blowing viewpoints that you can spray half a dozen of them with a good sneeze.įortunately, with a minimal amount of effort, leave crowded Yosemite Valley, follow a trail from a gorgeous subalpine lake through dense forest, and attain the summit of a peak whose views are every bit as, if not more spectacular than Half Dome. It is, however, an example of our love affair with the superlatives. This isn’t to say that Half Dome isn’t a great and worthy experience. And, as necessary as the permit system is for controlling overuse, I don’t think anybody jumps for joy at the thought of more red tape in their lives. Yosemite Valley itself is often more congested than Uncle Vito’s cardiovascular system. Every year, up to 225 people per day – limited only by a permit system – attempt to summit the top of the dome by way of a notoriously sketchy cable system after a monstrously steep and crowded hike. This tendency is no different with Yosemite National Park’s signature landmark, Half Dome. (See the end of the article for the answers). We seem to have a powerful hunger for the superlatives and the famous name, but once we move past that, our knowledge and our corresponding desire to tackle anything that doesn’t come in first seems to fall off a figurative cliff as deep as Tenaya Canyon. How about you? If you don’t know either, don’t trouble yourself. I don’t know any of those things without the internet whispering into my ear. What’s the second tallest peak in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. What’s the second tallest peak in Africa?Ĥ. What’s the second tallest peak in the Sierra Nevada?ģ. What is the second tallest peak on the planet?Ģ.
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