Yosemite: Glacier Pt to Red Peak Pass to Lake Merced

[Tony Wong]

4 Days and 50 Miles July 2007
Tom Harrison Maps: Yosemite High Trail Map

Panorama Trail Trail Head at Yosemite's Glacier Point 7214 ft

Glacier Point & Half Dome

Following the Illilouette Creek
Easy single track trail, well marked.
After 1.5 miles from Glacier Point dramatically fewer people on the trail. Most of the people we met were returning from Lower Ottoway Lake as a point in and out trip.

Mt. Starr King NE of the Trail

Last Push Up to Upper Merced Pass Lake.
Dry year with no water on the push up. Merced Pass Lake was our only hope for water.
This frankly kicked my butt…I was bonking out due to being out of shape.

13 Miles In From Glacier Point at Upper Merced Pass Lake
Henry Shire Squall 2 Tarp Tent in the Background. Tarp tents worked very well. Little wind and condensation to deal with. Water very close by. No bugs. Behind us was Lower Merced Pass Lake, which is considerably bigger. We briefly looked for it, but never found it. Obscured by the terrain.

Breakfast at Upper Merced Pass Lake 8920 ft
Temperatures that night were warm, high 30's degrees F to mid 40's degrees F. My 15 degree Marmot Helium EQ was too warm.

Lower Ottoway Lake 9563 ft
We saw a few groups camping here, well hidden from each other. We passed two teenage boys carrying good sized fish that they had caught from the lake to their campsite.

Jeremy Tanking up on Cool Waters
Daytime temps were warm, 80 to 85 degrees F. Dunking our hats into the cool waters was a welcome relief and gave us a chance to tank up before going up.

Circling Lower Ottoway Lake

A Bit of Rock & Water

Jeremy Above Lower Ottoway Lake
Trail here started out with plenty of snow melt water flowing down and across the trail. A little mucky, but quickly the elevation gain came and water was gone.

Upper Ottoway Lake
Very windy, but beautiful location. Would not attempt to camp at this barren and exposed location.

Switch Backs of Red Peak Pass
The thin air, lack of breeze, and ever present sun slowed me down to a crawl. Meeting two young and attractive women who were descending from top, I only could muster a fair smile and hello. Jeremy was in much better physical shape than I was and seemed unaffected by the altitude.

Sky & Rock

Tony Top of the Pass SE View
Elevation 11,075 ft.

Jeremy at Red Peak Pass NE View
Very Narrow Pass, not much wider than a small living room.

Tony Happy to be at the Top

Just Below Red Peak Pass Checking the Map

Snow at 11,075 ft

Red Rock Trail

One of Many Unnamed Lakes on the Decent

Trail of Snow Water Lakes

Red Devil Lake
Elevation 9,744 ft.

Clear Water & Red Peaks

Back to the Tree Line

A Perfect Slice of Heaven

Down to Triple Peak Fork

Trail Crew Campsite at Triple Peak Fork
Elevation 9,100 ft.

View from Campsite along the Triple Peak Fork Trail looking back at Red Peak Pass

Dinner by a Stream after a 15 Mile Day

A Well Deserved Meal

Squall 2 and Contrail
Tarptents did a good job giving us shelter from a few bugs
We experienced some condensation that night with a beautiful full moon to keep us up at night

Where the Triple Peak Fork & Merced River Meet

Cool Waters of the Merced River

Washburn Lake
My First Time Swimming in a Lake on a Backpacking Trip
So nice to be clean and refreshed
Elevation 7,605 ft.

Merced Lake High Sierra Camp
Elevation 7,320 ft.

Western Shore of Merced Lake
Elevation 7,212 ft.

An Unexpected Site

Crossing the Merced River

Bunnell Point & Cascade
A few miles from this point the trail opens up to Little Yosemite Valley, which was loaded with backpackers and day hikers heading up to Half Dome.
Both of us finished the day with big blisters on our feet.
My right heel had a blister the size of a Silver Dollar, which was the result of wearing traditional thick hiking socks with trail runners.

View of the Valley from Panorama Cliff Trail

Half Dome, Nevada Falls, & Vernal Falls

Full Circle to Glacier Point

Jeremy's Happiest Part of the Trip

IF YOU HAVE ANY PHOTOS FROM TRIPS THAT YOU HAVE TAKEN IN THIS AREA, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO POST THEM UP ON THIS THREAD…THEY ARE MUCH APPRECIATED!

[Sam Haraldson]

Lovely captures, Tony. Thanks!

[t.darrah]

Great pictures, I look forward to seeing more. How about including your gear list? Thanks again.

[Tom Clark]

Tony,
Great photos, can't wait for the rest. Also would like to hear some commentary on the trail, hiking conditions, how gear worked, etc.
Tom

[George Matthews]

Nice pics! Thanks for sharing. What were the temps during day and night?

[Tony Wong]

Thom, Thomas, and George,

Thanks for the positive feed back.

I have added comments to the photos to try to give you a sense of the conditions on the trip.

Temps in July were warm…I probably could have gotten away with a summer 40 degree F bag, though there was one night on the 2nd night where it was cool enough for me to appreciate my 15 degree bag.

Night time may have been as low as the high 30's to high 40's, but I sleep cold and am not a great judge of these things.

Daytime temps were in the 80's for sure.

As for posting a gear list, I would hesitate to post up my list as I am relatively new at this.

Highlights of my gear list:

Gregory Z55 Backpack…very comfortable and no sweaty back

Marmot Helium EQ 15 Down Bag…silky smooth interior fabric

Henry Shire Contrail Tarptent…perfect bug refugee

Thermarest Prolite 4…heavy, but comfortable and warm

Sawyer Inline Water Filter/Gravity Filter…light & easy

MSR Titan Kettle…versatile mug, bowl, wash basin

MSR Pocket Rocket

Bear Vault, large size. Evil, bulky, heavy, but required

This was my longest trip to date when I did this.

The longest trip I had previously done was the Ohlone Trail in the Bay Area, which was 20 miles in 2 days.

Jeremy is a slave driver and sets a good pace to push me. :)

-Tony

[Tom Clark]

Tony,
I know I requested some commentary, but I wasn't actually expecting a dicussion of Jeremy's chest hairs. Guess I gotta take the good with the bad.

I must have skipped over the Red Rock photos, but wow! Those red rocks framing that alpine lake really look great.

Tom

[Tony Wong]

As much as I enjoy posting these pictures, it a slow pain in the butt to get them sorted, uploaded, and captioned.

Enjoy!

-Tony

[Christopher Holden]

Tony,
It may be a pain, but it's nice for others to see these photos when we don't get to see those shots where we live. I've spent most of my life in the SE US and I think the only time I was ever above tree line was when I was in an airplane.
Thanks!
Chris

[Tony Wong]

Chris,

I am glad that you liked the pictures.

I have to admit that I do enjoy the feed back.

I have some Yosemite Winter Photos that I will start posting up and a few other trips that are around the Bay Area.

Thanks again.

-Tony

[t.darrah]

Tony,
Thanks for adding the additional pictures and your list of gear. You've set the bar high for other members posting trip reports – good job.

[Steven Nelson]

Great report and pics!

We did the High Passes Loop last year, spending one night at upper Ottoway and crossing over Red Peak Pass and heading out in a loop through the Ansel Adams Wilderness. That pass is something, no? We had a traffic jam at the top, with a trail crew (shovels in hand) plus several groups of hikers congregating in that living-room sized space.

Stunningly beautiful, either way – thanks again for sharing your experiences.

[Jeremy Pendrey]

Tony: Thanks for posting the pics. Sorry I complain on every trip about you taking too many pictures (gotta keep moving, another picture? . . .). You don't listen to me anyway. I do appreciate having them available online. Good picture of my beer.
-Jeremy.

[Peter Atkinson]

Looks like an ace ace trip = some lovely photos; I like the final beer one best!

[Martin Rye]

Tony,

Hi again and "wow" again. It seems you have a knack for good weather and finding mind blowing views to look at on your trips. As always it is appreciated.

[Diplomatic Mike]

Great pictures! I'm gonna have to organise a hiking trip to the US!

[Martin Rye]

But where Mike, they are lost for choice. I have a few US maps I got a while back as I am planning to go sometime. The deciding where is the bit I am working on. It sure is an amazing place.

[Tom Clark]

Tony,
I see you added more photos and commetns since I last checked in. I know it always takes more time than expected, but we appreciate it. I'm still diggin' that Red Rock Trail. During a trip to Vogelsang I had planned to go down to Merced High Sierra camp, but had a change of plans due to the weather, so it's nice to see it.
Tom

[Tony Wong]

Tom,

Thanks again.

There are so many photos that it takes me a few days to weeks to get them all uploaded.

Work, family, and life gets in the way of me just uploading 50 photos at a time. :)

Did you check you my "High Sierra Trail to Mt .Whitney 2007" photos?

That one took me a week or two to get uploaded.

I am currently sorting and cleaning up Yosemite Photos of Lake Vernon from May, which I hope to start uploading this upcoming week.

Then I have s bunch of photos from August North of Yosemite from the Immigrant Wilderness.

Plenty of photos to keep me busy between trips.

Anyway, to everyone…thank you for taking the time to view my photos and to post your appreciative comments.

Motivates me to get off my lazy butt and get some more photos done. :)

-Tony

[Tom Clark]

Tony,
Yeah, I saw those photos and for a second thought this group was the same trip. I think that's great country that you two went through, and would love to get out there more. I understand about the time thing…I shold on my way to work right now, but haven't gotten my blinders on yet.

You might want to post your next report in the "Trip Report" section since you have obviously put more into this than just posting a few pics.

The trip reports and techniques section are really what I most enjoy in the forums.

Tom

[Cayenne Redmonk]

Another excellent trip report / photo diary Tony.
I was out there in the fall season this year, here are a few pictures, under different lighting.

Half Dome in morning light

Freezing rain reduced my enthusiam to push on …

I back tracked to the lake near merced pass, grabbed water, and found a spot to camp.

I think this will blow through and clear up

Climbing into the pass

Where did the sun go ?

The weather report was 2% chance of rain, and I see all 2% heading right at me

A killer view from the pass

This is when I decided to pack the camera up and get a move on. Snow, freezing rain, painfully large hail.

[Jay Wilkerson]

Great pictures Cameron! You said Fall- What month of the year were you there?

-INTP

[Cayenne Redmonk]

I was out the last three days of September.

[Ken Helwig]

Guys, nice photos. I have been wanting to go there for sometime now. Maybe this summer!

[Jay Wilkerson]

Last March

[Author]

Posts