YOSEMITE
We started the second half of our California trip with a few days in
Yosemite National Park. We had visited
the park briefly back in 2008. On that
trip, we spent a day along Tioga Road and another in Yosemite Valley, before
beginning our backpacking trip on the John Muir Trail in the valley. That trip had included only some short hikes
and sightseeing, and we didn’t make it up to Glacier Point. This time, we planned to hit some of the
major attractions that we missed previously.
My original plan had been to car camp at Tuolumne Meadows for a couple of
nights and do some dayhikes. Our last two days would feature a backpacking
trip to Clouds Rest. My plans were
initially thwarted by the Recreation.gov website. The site wasn’t working on the magical day
when they were supposed to start accepting campground reservations in July. By the time I found out that they had fixed
the problem, everything was booked. Our
revised plan was to get to the park early on a Sunday morning to try to get a
walk-up site. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Oakdale, CA that Saturday
night so that we could get there early.
From Oakdale, the park was a 2 hour drive.
I checked the reservation system right before our trip, and luckily a
site in the Tuolumne Meadows Campground had opened up. Apparently there had
been a cancellation. I booked it. That eliminated the stress of having to find
a campsite in a popular national park in July.
We left Oakdale pretty early. I
was looking forward to some bonus time in Yoesmite! Originally I thought
we might do a short hike that afternoon.
Since we had reservations, we would have more free time that day. I did some last minute
research, and settled on the hike to May Lake.
From there, it is possible to scramble up Mount Hoffman. Christy could join me for the hike to the
lake and then hang out in her hammock while I bagged the peak.
We drove straight to Tuolumne Meadows, checked in, and set up camp. We ended up with a nice site. It was up on a hill, with woods behind
us. The nearest neighbors were pretty
far away, too.
We had lunch there and then drove back down Tioga Road to the trailhead
for May Lake. We had passed it on the
drive in, but it was nice to have camp set up.
From there, we enjoyed a fairly easy hike on a good trail to May
Lake. There is a designated High Sierra
Camp at May Lake, but it wasn’t too busy.
There was still snow around the lake, and a lot of standing water. That meant mosquitoes. Despite the bugs, Christy was able to find a
sunny, breezy spot to hang her hammock where they weren’t too bad.
I had pulled up the route description and map for the scramble up Mount
Hoffman on my phone that morning in Oakdale.
When I checked it, the page tried to refresh. Because I didn’t have a cell signal it
crashed, and I lost all of my information.
One of these days I’ll learn to take screen shots of websites with important
information before I get out in the wilderness.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember which side of Mount Hoffman the route
ascends. From May Lake, it looked possible
to go around either side. The south side
is heavily wooded. The north side was
all open granite slabs. The north side
looked fun, but the uppermost section looked steep. Still, it looked feasible on the topo. I decided to go that way. This was wrong, but I didn’t figure that out
until much later.
The hike from May Lake around the north side of Mount Hoffman was as fun
as it looked. Most of it was on open
granite slopes, which make for delightful walking with constant views. The great thing in that terrain is that you
can basically go any way you want. You
can go straight up, or at angle, or make your own switchbacks. I did a little of all of these.
Before long I approached the saddle on the north side of Mount
Hoffman. There was a lot of snow there,
so I veered to the southwest and up.
This put me on a steeper route than the north ridge that I had planned
on. I still had to traverse a couple of
short snowfields, but they weren’t too sketchy.
After the snowfields I ran into a rocky wall. The last 300’ was a very
steep boulder field. From the base, I thought
it looked doable. It was, but not
without some challenges. There was a lot
of scrambling, and I had to do a lot of route finding to avoid exposure and
boulders that were too large to climb.
On two or three occasions I thought I was at a spot that was impassable,
but each time I found a way around. Finally,
I reached the summit plateau. What a relief!
From there, the true summit was still a good distance to the west. I headed southeast though, to scramble up a
rock tower overlooking May Lake. That
spot offered up the best view of the lake far below. Then I retreated to the plateau, circled another
rock tower on the south side, and encountered a perfectly good trail coming up
from May Lake. Sigh. Actually. I was thrilled, because this meant
I wouldn’t have to go back down the way I came.
I followed the trail to the base of the true summit. One more scramble up big rocks
brought me to the top. From there I
enjoyed a 360 degree view of most of Yosemite National
Park. Yosemite’s most iconic peak, Half Dome, was floating above the valley far
below. Rows of jagged mountains defined
the southwest and northwest horizons. It
was an incredible spot.
Unfortunately, it was also getting late.
I didn’t stay long. I followed
the trail down, or tried to. I lost it a
couple of times. It would’ve been much
easier to stay on it if I had actually come up that way. Still, the route down to May Lake was much
easier than my approach route.
Christy and I had agreed to meet at May Lake, unless she got cold / bored
/ impatient / annoyed with the mosquitoes.
In that case, we would meet back at the car. I was way behind schedule, so I was pretty
sure she had already headed back down.
Still, I walked back over to where I’d left her to make sure. She was gone, so I headed down at top
speed. Along the way I enjoyed a lovely
sunset and a pretty pink sky over the mountains to the south. It was pretty much dark when I reached the
car, but I managed to finish the hike without getting out my headlamp. I found Christy at the car, and we headed
back to camp for a late dinner.
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