Yosemite: Grand Canyon of the Tuolomne: Sept. 2021

In mid-September 2021 Herman, Nancy, and I spent five days (plus a couple of hours) backpacking in Yosemite, mostly in the Grand Canyon of the Tuolomne.  Our plan had originally been to spend nine days backpacking a 60-mile loop, about half of that encompassing the Grand Canyon of the Tuolomne.  But a variety of factors, including a trail closure due to a wildfire (which kiboshed our plans for the loop hike) and my need to get back to the trailhead in time to catch a train in Merced later in the day (which reduced the amount of time we could afford to spend on the trail) eventually cut our hike to about half that distance.  I think we managed to keep most of the most beautiful parts of the original route.  But this hike whetted my appetite for exploring the backcountry of Yosemite more than I had thought possible, and I hope to be back.

It was still dark when, around 5:30AM on Sept. 18, we piled into Herman and Nancy's car and set out towards California.  The miles flew by quickly, and despite some wildfire smoky stretch by Sequoia National Park, the sky was clear as we drove into Yosemite by early evening and set up camp in the backpacker's campground at Tuolomne Meadows.  The low temperature that night was forecast to be 21°F (about -6°C).  To keep my water from freezing overnight I took it into my tent and tucked it into the footbox of my quilt, where it promptly leaked a puddle onto the tent floor, necessitating some hurried wiping up.  Not a good omen.

Day 1: Murphy Creek Trailhead to Glen Aulin HSC

The night wasn't quite as cold as predicted, and to my huge relief the water spill in my tent the previous evening didn't seem to have left any residual problems.  After a quick breakfast I headed out to the Wilderness Office to pick up our permits, but managed to get turned around and drove around in circles confusedly for some time before I found my way there.  This did not seem like an auspicious beginning to a wilderness backpacking trip.

We started out from Murphy Creek Trailhead just after 9 AM, heading for Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp (HSC) seven miles away.  The initial portion of the trail went across wide fields of bare white granite, but was well-marked and easy to follow.  The trail climbed gradually for a while, soon transitioning to shady pine forest, then began a long descent through a boulder-dotted pine forest toward McGee Lake.  I don't recall meeting any people on this portion of the hike, just  a few deer that mostly didn't pay us much attention.  

After a brief lunch break at picturesque McGee Lake, we headed on towards Glen Aulin, which we reached in the early afternoon.  A couple of footbridges took us over the Tuolomne River and over towards the grounds of the High Sierra Camp.  The scenery was was spectacular: a lovely little waterfall called White Cascade that splashed into a clear deep pool, a huge imposing rock face standing guard across the way.  The Tuolomne was running quite thin and low this late in the season, leaving exposed a huge expanse of polished granite that would have been riverbed had water levels been higher. After the usual camp setup chores I wandered down the exposed riverbed to take pictures.

The temperature dropped quickly once the sun set.  Although Glen Aulin, at an elevation of 7900′, was about 700′ lower than our previous night's camp at Tuolomne Meadows, the forecast called for a cold night with a low in the low- to mid-20s.  Rather than risk having things freeze overnight, I brought a lot of stuff into my tent: two bottles of water down at the foot of the tent, my water filter and gas canister in the foot box of my quilt.  We were all feeling tired (the elevation may have been a factor) and didn't stay up long after an early dinner.  The moon was big and bright, and once when I opened my eyes in the middle of the night the entire campsite seemed lit up.  The night turned out to not be as cold as I had feared, and I slept comfortably.

Day 2: Glen Aulin HSC to Cathedral Creek

We were up by 6 AM and on the trail by 8.  The early morning sunlight on the rock face across the way was stunning.  The initial section of the trail was flat and forested.  The Tuolomne, which had been a thin but determined little stream running down the granite slope above, widened and slowed to a broad shallow stretch of water paralleling the trail, forming calm still pools whose still surface reflected beautifully the pine trees lining the riverbank and the steep granite crags behind them.  We encountered a few hikers heading into Glen Aulin, and came across several groups of deer grazing near the trail; we startled one of them as we walked by (the deer, not the hikers), and it jumped into the river with a loud splash, eventually wandering back to the riverbank a few minutes later once it decided that we didn't pose a threat.

The landscape changed dramatically as we entered the Grand Canyon of the Tuolomne.  The river plunged downhill, tumbling down a long steep smooth sheet of granite in a dizzying series of seething waterfalls alternating with still quiet pools.  The trail followed as best it could down a series of steep and rocky switchbacks.  The views were breathtaking, and more than once the three of us detoured off the trail to get a closer look at the cascading sheets of water.  At one of these breaks, trying to cross a small shallow bit of water, I underestimated the slickness of the wet stone and slipped, sliding down a short distance before I managed to stop myself, getting my pants wet in the process (in retrospect, this was a stupid thing to do, and while I emerged with nothing worse than some damp clothes and a slightly bruised ego, I could have gotten hurt; lesson learned).

My slip-and-fall wasn't the only mishap this morning: both Herman and Nancy hurt their knees at different points on this section of the trail.  None of this was serious, but we were a lot more careful as we continued down the trail.

It was quite a bit warmer than we had expected from the weather forecast.  The sun blazed out of a clear blue sky, and the smooth white rock around us made things worse by reflecting the heat  back.  We were grateful for the intermittent flat stretches of trail that had enough tree cover to offer some respite from the heat.  The vegetation changed as we descended: forests of ponderosa pine gave way to sugar pines, the latter with huge cones over a foot long!

We were getting tired from the heat of the day and the hard hiking, and when we came to a lovely shady campsite near the junction of the Tuolomne River and Cathedral Creek, we decided to stop for the day.  The rest of the afternoon was spent doing camp chores and relaxing by the rocky pools by the edge of the river.  I was tired enough that, after an early Happy Hour and dinner, I was in my tent shortly after 7 PM.  I fell asleep to the sound of rushing water.

Day 3: Day hike: Cathedral Creek towards Pate Valley

Our need to be back at the trailhead no later than noon on Day 6 of our hike, so I could catch a 3:30 PM train out of Merced, constrained when we needed to turn around.  After kicking around various ideas, we had decided to leave our camp where it was and day hike down towards Pate Valley.  

The trail contoured along for a little bit, then gradually climbed a few hundred feet through forests of sugar pine and oak.  The ground, covered with leaf litter, with acorns and huge pine cones scattered around, was soft and pleasant to walk on; the downside, however, was that the shady forested sections of trail were also thick with gnats, and while they didn't bite, the swarms of tiny bugs around the face were distracting and annoying.  The landscape opened up as we crested the ridge line and began a steep 1,500′ descent into Muir Gorge.  Luckily, the descent wasn't as bad as we had feared from peering at the contour lines squeezed close together on the map—partly because we were carrying a lot less weight on our backs, and partly because the trail was in remarkably good shape.  The work involved in moving all that rock to make a nice even trail was mind-boggling!  But, while the well-built trail made for easier and more comfortable hiking, a part of me wished for a less manicured wilderness experience.

We came across three hikers down near Pate Valley, a lot fewer than we had expected.  Every hiker we had encountered to on the hike thus far, including the ones we met this day, had mentioned the bears they had encountered, so it was puzzling to us that we had yet to see a single one.  This changed when, on our way back and about a mile or so from our campsite, we came across a bear and her cub ahead of us by the trail.  The two bears ran across the trail, the little cub chasing after its mother frantically, scooted quickly up the rock face to our left, and disappeared.  So now we had our bear sighting as well!

Day 4: Cathedral Creek to Glen Aulin

The day began with the usual breaking-camp chores.  Unfortunately Herman and Nancy weren't feeling well, which they speculated could have been due to contaminated water leaking through a possibly-failed filter.  This dampened our mood, and the conversation over breakfast was quieter than usual.

As we were getting ready to leave, I walked up from our campsite to the trail and came almost face to face with a bear that was walking down the trail.  I think we were both equally startled at the encounter.  I jumped up and down and yelled and waved my arms, and Herman and Nancy joined in from camp. The bear hesitated for a split second and then took off into the underbrush to the side of the trail.  Some time later, we saw a set of clear bear tracks along the trail: most likely a different animal, and a reminder of whom we shared the trail with.

We started the day at an elevation of around 5500′; our destination, Glen Aulin, was at 7900′: an ascent of 2400′, quite a bit less than a Grand Canyon river-to-rim, but still a good bit of uphill.  We were tired and it was slow going.  The air was quite smoky at first, with lots of gnats swarming us at the lower elevations, but the haze improved and the bugs disappeared as as the day wore on and we climbed higher.  The vegetation also changed, oak and sugar pine forests giving way to manzanita and ponderosa pine.  Although we had been down this very trail just a couple of days back, the difference in the quality of light (due to the different time of day), and the direction and angle we were approaching from, made everything look fresh and different.  And, of course, amazingly lovely.  We hiked slowly, stopping every so often to enjoy the scenery, maybe dip our hands into the cool water or take pictures.  We reached Glen Aulin around 3:30.  The temperature, quite a bit lower at the higher elevation, was perfect.  After the usual camp chores and dinner we turned in a little after 7.

A minor digression: all of the hikers we had encountered mentioned lots of bears around Pate Valley (elevation around 4000′) and we encountered two bears around the Tuolomne's confluence with Cathedral Creek, at around 5500′.  There was also a lot of bear scat around at those elevations.  But this changed as we climbed to higher elevations: there was no scat or other bear signs by the time we got to Glen Aulin (7900′), and none of the hikers we met mentioned encountering bears there.  So it seems that in Yosemite, bear encounters at elevations above 6000′ or 7000′ are rare.  This is different from what we experienced in Yellowstone in August: both our bear encounters were above 7500′, along with plenty of bear scat and other signs, and the bears seemed perfectly comfortable wandering higher up the mountainside.  In Yellowstone there were lots of bushes full of wild berries at 7500′+ elevations, and grizzlies supposedly fatten up on the oil-rich seeds of whitebark pine, which are plentiful in the southern area where we were.  By contrast, I didn't notice much in the way of berries at higher elevations in Yosemite.  So maybe the difference in distribution of bears was due to the availability of food? 

Day 5: Glen Aulin to Polly Dome Lakes

The goal for the day was Polly Dome Lakes, about five miles away: not a big hike, even accounting for the 800′ elevation difference (maybe closer to 1000′ of uphill hiking if we factored in the initial downhill stretch from Glen Aulin), so we didn't feel any urgency about getting up and on the trail early.  The night had been deliciously cool as well, and it felt wonderful to just lie in the warm cocoon of my quilt.  I didn't emerge from my tent until after 7!

We got on the trail pretty late, around 9:30.  The trail wound its way through forests of ponderosa pines and was shady and cool and quiet, descending gently for some time at first, then heading back uphill again.  We had come down this trail just a few days earlier, but it looked different heading in the opposite direction.  Still, there were familiar landmarks: a small flat area by the side of the trail near McGee Lake that we had filed away as a possible campsite; a dry and an almost-dry creekbed; the point where the downhill stopped and the uphill began.

The trail to Polly Dome Lakes veered off to the east shortly after a junction with a trail coming in from the west.  It climbed steeply and seemed more rugged and challenging than the trails we had been on earlier (we found out later that this side trail was not an "offiicial" National Park trail and was not maintained by NPS).  Once we got to Polly Dome Lakes, around mid-day, the place was gorgeous and secluded: we saw another party of hikers in the distance, at the very end of the lake, but they were far enough away that it felt as though we had the place to ourselves.  Polly Dome stretched across the far side of the lake, a big white convex bulge of granite. The lake was clear, shallow, and still, reflecting the pine trees and the dome on the other side.  It was fringed with short shrubs that were beginning to turn red, adding a pretty touch of color to an already lovely scene.  The camp area was more or less flat-ish, with huge granite boulders scattered about and lots of pine trees for shade.

We sat around and relaxed: moving into the shade when it felt too warm in the sun, moving back into the sun when the it felt too cool in the shade.  It was just a wonderful relaxing afternoon.  As the day wore on, several groups of hikers came by: mostly day hikers who paused briefly to say hello, but one other party of backpackers.  I was surprised at first, because this was a lot of traffic for what I thought was an isolated spot, until I realized that we were just a couple of miles from Murphy Creek Trailhead.  I guess I had adjusted to being in the backcountry: it felt a little odd seeing so many groups of people, and especially so many day-hikers.  

Eventually, once the afternoon progressed to the point where we could declare "Happy Hour" without feeling guilty, Herman and I finished off our remaining booze and, shortly afterwards, started dinner.  Afterwards we wandered over to the lake, enjoying the stillness and quiet.  Near dusk a lone mallard swam out on the lake, quacking now and then, ducking every so often to search for food.  At one point a buck deer appeared on the far shore.  It seemed to have something caught on its front legs and looked like it was limping.  It disappeared back into the forest and we didn't see it after that,

The temperature dropped quickly once the sun went down, and we headed into our tents not long after.

Day 6: Hike out

The last day of the hike was short.  We had only a couple of miles to cover, and even with a leisurely start to the morning this went quickly.  We were back at the trailhead around 9:30.

Epilogue

This was a good hike.  Even though we ended up doing a lot less than what we had originally planned---five days and 35 miles instead of nine days and 50 miles---much of that was due to things we had no control over, and I think we managed to retain some of the most scenic parts of the original hike.  We could have done a lot worse.

I hope to be back.