Jeff Wilhelm on North Dome overlooking Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park.ĭropping from North Dome to Lehamite Creek, we’re relieved to find it flowing, though shallow. Plan your next great backpacking adventure in Yosemite and other flagship parks using my expert e-guides. But with the scarcity of human traffic here, standing on North Dome feels a little like stumbling upon a well-preserved little secret: Other than a few dayhikers, we have it to ourselves on a spectacular morning when I’m sure the usual hundreds of hikers are parading up and down the Mist Trail. I’ve seen the Valley and its world-famous cliffs from numerous angles and points of view over the years. The trail drops steeply into a saddle and then we stride up onto the broad summit of North Dome-stepping into a heart-stopping panorama.įrom this perch at over 7,500 feet, some 3,000 feet above the Valley, our view spans from Clouds Rest and Half Dome to Glacier Point, El Capitan, and beyond. To our left, the sheer face of Half Dome looms enormous just across the deep chasm of Yosemite Valley. Lovely, low-angle sunlight and the deep silence of a calm morning accompany Jeff and me as we hike down the nearly treeless southern end of Indian Ridge. I can help you plan this or any trip you read about at my blog. After dinner, we walk out onto a nearby, unnamed granite dome overlooking Half Dome and the Valley-and watch, transfixed, over the course of about an hour as one of the finest sunsets and dusk skies I’ve witnessed in a while patiently unfurls before us. Later, as our first afternoon slides toward evening, we hike uphill with packs that have suddenly gained more than 10 pounds, burdened with the weight of 11 liters of water between us in anticipation of a waterless campsite on Indian Ridge. Numerous large, flat granite boulders straddle the stream, inviting us to sit-one of several common characteristics of High Sierra creeks that border on perfection and I wish could be copied and pasted to mountain streams everywhere. Jeff Wilhelm backpacking Indian Ridge, overlooking Half Dome, in Yosemite National Park.Īt midday, we stop for lunch beside Snow Creek, still flowing in late September in one of the West’s hottest and driest years on record. Click here to learn how I can help you plan your next trip. Click here for my e-guides to classic backpacking trips. Join The Big Outside to get full access to all of my blog’s stories. Click here to sign up for my FREE email newsletter. Hi, I’m Michael Lanza, creator of The Big Outside. You could say this hike is hiding in plain sight. And yet, this area doesn’t see nearly the same demand for a coveted wilderness permit as Yosemite’s most popular trailheads, even though it’s just as accessible and only moderately difficult. Our plan: to hike a four-day, 45-mile loop that scampers along one rim of Yosemite Valley-including one of the best Valley overlooks-and explores a lakes basin at 9,000 feet before finishing at one of the park’s prettiest lakes. My friend and regular backpacking compadre Jeff Wilhelm and I have come to Yosemite in late September-luckily, during a respite from the smoke hanging over another grim fire season in California (yet another stark reminder of how little time humanity has to take aggressive action to minimize climate change). Jeff Wilhelm at an overlook toward Half Dome while backpacking in Yosemite National Park. And yet we’ll encounter just a handful of other people over more than five hours on the trail today-and surprisingly few over the four days of this loop hike, considering its proximity to both the Valley and Tuolumne Meadows. Almost every time I’ve enjoyed a view like this one overlooking the Valley, I’ve been surrounded by other hikers-sometimes dozens of them. Our vista from high above Yosemite Valley frames Half Dome and a constellation of distant peaks-that kind of scene I’ve learned that backpackers come upon countless times throughout this park and the High Sierra. Jeff, who’d stumbled upon this apparition a minute ahead of me, chuckles and says, “I thought you’d want me to wait.” One of my most cooperative photo models, Jeff’s hiked enough miles with me-and backtracked a section of trail enough times for my camera-to sense in advance when I’ll require his services. “Wow!” bursts from my mouth involuntarily, sounding very inadequate for the majestic scene before us. A bit over a mile into our first day backpacking in Yosemite, as we round a bend in the trail, Half Dome suddenly rears up in front of us, looming over the horizon like an asteroid just seconds before it impacts the planet.
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