CLOUDS
REST
At
9,926’, Clouds Rest towers over Yosemite Valley. Half Dome is over a thousand feet lower. On our 2008 visit to Yosemite, Clouds Rest
was a major attraction that we missed.
This time, it was one of the focal points of our trip.
Clouds
Rest is an 8 mile hike, one-way, from the closest
trailhead at Tenya Lake. Despite this, it is a popular dayhike. Because of
the distance, the summit can be a busy place early in the afternoon. I had a different plan in mind. We would backpack in, camp a bit before the
peak, hike to the summit that evening, and stick around for sunset.
We
broke camp that morning and drove to the southwest end of Tenaya Lake and the
Sunrise Lakes Trailhead. We packed at
the trailhead, and moved all of our food to bearproof lockers. That is necessary because Yosemite bears are
known for breaking into cars to get at food.
We
hiked five minutes to a ford of Tenaya Creek.
We changed shoes and waded to the far side. After some easy hiking below Tenaya Peak, we
tackled a rocky, grueling climb to a saddle southwest of the Sunrise
Lakes. We had lunch there. Afterwards, I followed a side path out to the
brink of a cliff overlooking Tenaya Canyon, with Clouds Rest and Half Dome in
the distance.
We
descended gently to an area of small ponds and streams below Sunrise
Mountain. We reached an unnamed
tributary of Tenaya Creek and stopped to filter water, as it was likely to be
our last water source. From there, we
climbed gently to an open hillside with views down Sunrise Creek valley. I explored off-trail a bit, and found a
scenic campsite with good trees for our hammocks. We set up camp there before starting the
final hike up Clouds Rest.
We
hiked to the top of the hill and gained the ridge leading towards the summit of
Clouds Rest. There are many possible
campsites in this area, too. We had
passed quite a few dayhikers heading out earlier in
the day. Here, we met the last group of
hikers on their way out.
The
final climb up Clouds Rest is along a rocky spine. Some people find this stretch frightening,
but I’m not sure why. The ridge is
fairly broad, and the footing is good for the most part.
We
reached the summit a few minutes later.
It was completely deserted. From
there, we had a spectacular view of Half Dome and Yosemite Valley below. Jagged peaks surrounded us in every other
direction. One feature really caught my
eye. Below us, on the far side of Tenaya
Canyon, was a long ridge of open granite extending south from Mount
Watkins. I was intrigued. It looked like an amazing place to
explore. Unfortunately, we were planning
to leave Yosemite after we got back to the car the next day.
We
hung out there for a couple of hours, and enjoyed a lovely sunset. We headed down shortly before total
darkness. We hiked back to camp with our
headlamps and had a late dinner. We
enjoyed a spectacular sky full of stars before heading to our hammocks for the
night.
We
packed up and hiked back out the next morning.
Along the way, we passed lots of dayhikers on
their way to Clouds Rest. We had lunch
and a swim at Tenaya Lake, and debated our plan for the afternoon. Originally, we had planned to leave the park
and head down to Mono Lake to camp.
However, that granite ridge below Mount Watkins was calling to me. I really wanted to check it out. The map shows that the Snow Creek Trail passes
below Mount Watkins. It looked like it
would be a fairly easy off-trail hike from the Snow Creek Trail over the summit
of Mount Watkins and out the ridgeline.
We
discussed our options, and decide to spend an extra day in Yosemite. If we could find a place to car camp, we
could spend the next day hiking out there.
Our
first attempt was the Porcupine Flat Campground. This campground is dumpy and cramped, and it
appeared to be full. That was ok, as I
didn’t really want to camp there anyway.
The next possibility was the Yosemite Creek Campground. Reaching it requires driving several miles
down a rough dirt road. I guess that
dissuades a lot of people, as there were a lot of spots available. It was much nicer than Porcupine Flat, too. We set up camp and spent the rest of the
afternoon relaxing.
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