Monday, September 7th- Monday, September 14th
Mono Lake
Mono Lake is located off Route 395 on the eastern side of the Sierra's just before reaching the turn off for Yosemite National Park. This lake is known for its dramatic tufa towers that form along the edge of the lake. The water in the lake is 2 1/2 times as salty and 80 times as alkaline as the ocean. This is due to no outlets in the lake and the fact that more evaporation happens than rainfall. There are also a huge habitat of brine shrimp that thrive in the water allowing critical nesting for two million annual migratory birds.
Yosemite National Park: Tuolomne Meadows
Yosemite is one of the most beautiful places in the world with towering granite cliffs, granite domes, and some of the most spectacular waterfalls. The huge mountains and cliffs where formed when molten rock rose beneath the granite pushing it into a mountain range. Then a river was formed through the mountains carving out little bits of rock. The temperatures started to drop as the earth moved into the ice age. The ice age formed a massive glacier that carved the mountains into what we see today. However, when the glacier melted it left behind a huge pile of rocks making a dam. The valley filled with a lake that helped even out the ground on the bottom. Eventually the lake dried up leaving the bottom of the valley as we see it today.
In 1868 outdoor enthusiast John Muir arrived in Yosemite in search of a wild and beautiful place and felt that Yosemite was the perfect fit. Originally from Scotland, Muir had just finished a thousand mile walk from Indiana to Florida after that he scheduled his trip to Yosemite which he had only heard of. Shortly after his arrival, Muir became well know in Yosemite for climbing most all the mountains and sketching the beautiful scenery. He became a shepherd but quit quickly realizing all the damage the sheep did to Yosemite's meadows. Muir became one of Yosemite's greatest advocates meeting with Teddy Roosevelt in Yosemite to discuss making Yosemite the first protected national park. Shortly after the meeting, Teddy Roosevelt signed a law making Yosemite the first protected national park.
-Eli
First stop in Yosemite: Tenaya Lake in Tuolumne Meadows
Yosemite is known for it's abundance of rock domes. Brad, Asa and I hiked a dome off the side of the road just across from Olmstead Point. Before heading out we noticed this cloud in the sky. At first we were wondering if it was a thunderhead, but quickly realized it was a fire that had just started a few valleys away. We saw this fire burning for the rest of our week stay in Yosemite, as you will see in later pictures.
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| A view to the south. You can see Half Dome in the far back to the right. |
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| A view to the north, with Tenaya Lake in the background. |
Yosemite National Park: Yosemite Valley
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| Dropping into the valley the view of the iconic Yosemite Valley, El Capitan (on the left) and Half Dome (back right) |
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| One of the few waterfalls flowing: Bridalveil Fall. |
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| Brad imagining a climb one day in the future of El Capitan |
Hike up to Half Dome: 2 days, 17 miles, 11 hours
I wasn’t psyched to
do a two day backpacking trip. I have never backpacked and I I don’t
like to hike, but when my mom and dad came back to the car with a
permit to hike half dome I knew that they were going to make me hike.
My mom said that it would be an easy hike up to the campsite where we
were staying. She said it would not be up hill that much and mostly
flat, “It follows right along the river.” She was very, very
wrong. The first day we started hiking at around 3 pm. When we got to
the trail, it was a concrete path and it was going up. Up, straight
up. After about a mile of hiking on the concrete path, we came to
some stairs. BIG stairs. After a little bit of hiking up the stairs,
we came to a waterfall that was barley running and we stopped to be
all touristy and take a bunch of photos. Then we climbed up, UP the
waterfall. There were really, really steep stairs going straight up
right next to the waterfall. After we climbed up the steps, we walked
on a path up to another waterfall. Yes, we did hike up steep stairs
right next to the waterfall. After hiking up the two waterfalls, it
was about a mile and a half to our campground where we got water and
set up a two person tent for four of us.
The next morning we
started hiking at 8:00 and hiked about 1.5 miles to the bottom of
Half Dome. Then we started our journey up the zigzagging steps up to
the part where you have to climb up the really steep section. There
were two cables going straight up the side of Half Dome. Personally,
it was really scary going up the side of a 75 degree rock. Especially
since I am scared of heights and there only cables to pull yourself
up. We got to the top and we saw a huge fire in the valley. There
were helicopters and planes circling to dump water. We stayed at the
top for around 40 minutes and then we started down the same two
cables. I thought that going down would be really hard, but it turned
out that it was not so bad and it was actually easier than going up.
We all hiked down the 1.5 hike back to the campsite where we ate
sandwiches and laid down for 20 minuets. Then we filled up our water
bottles and hiked the 4.5 mile hike down to the car. In total we
hikes 16.5 miles in two days.
-Asa
Day 1: Hike up Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall into Little Yosemite Valley where we camped.
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| Vernal Falls: the first of two climbs! |
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| Climbing up along the falls. |
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| A small flow compared to the spring- you can see the dark color on the rock that shows how wide it gets in the spring. |
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| Just about at the top. |
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| Waterfall number one accomplished. You can see the river down below where we started. |
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| Hiking up waterfall number two: Nevada Fall |
Day 2: Up to Half Dome and back down the waterfalls.
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| Up (more steps) to Half Dome. |
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| Just about to the base of Half Dome. |
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| Half Dome. If you look closely you can see the rungs going up the side. |
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| A steep climb up the rungs. |
At the top of Half Dome, 4,800 feet of elevation gain!
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| Eli on the edge of the world (at least Half Dome). |
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| Unfortunately, smoke filled the air. This is the fire we witnessed starting 2 days earlier. If you look close, you can see an airplane off to the left. We observed up to 6 planes and helicopters circling the fire, dropping water. |
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Back at the bottom in Yosemite Valley
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| We splurged on a "cabin" once we got back down from the hike. It came with a shower and use of wifi the next day! |
Climbing in Yosemite
It has been years since I had been rock climbing but I was still very exited to climb in the rock climbing birth place of America. We parked at camp 4 (a legandary climbers camp) and walked down to an area called the Swan Slabs. The Swan Slabs are granite rock and they are mostly crack climbs there. Our first climb of the day was a 5.7 crack climb that was really fun and pretty easy. The second and last climb I did that day was the hardest climb I have ever done. It was a 5.9 crack climb. Before the 5.9, my dad taught me some techniques for climbing hard crack climbs. One of them was called the lay back. The lay back is when you stick your hands in the crack and lock your arms to save energy and then you walk your feet up the granite wall until you find more hand holds in the crack. After I got to the bottem of my hardest climb, I was really exited that I climbed it!
The second day We went back to the Swan Slabs and decided that we would climb a multi-pitch climb (my first time climbing a multi-pitch climb). It was only a 5.6 but the first pitch was really polished so wherever you put you feet on the granite they would slip. After we got done the first pitch and dad climbed the second to belay us we climbed the second pitch. The second pitch was easier than the first and a lot of fun. When we go to the top of that pitch we decided not to climb the 3rd pitch but to repel down the side of a 190 foot rock wall. Repelling down that wall was pretty scary even though dad had me on back up. After we got done the multi-pitch climb we decided to do some more climbs before we left. I climbed two 5.6s and one really fun 5.7.
-Asa
