August 2005 Yosemite Trip

[Tom Clark]

Here are some photos from a trip I took to Yosemite in August 2005. These photos don’t show the unusually poor weather that we had much of the time. The higher peaks like Mt. Dana got a dusting of snow one day…we just got the cold rain. We hiked in from Tuolumne Meadows down Rafferty Creek with the plan to do a 30-mile semi-loop.

Since the weather wasn’t what we had hoped for and no one was around, we stayed 3 nights at Vogelsang and just explored the area, including Boothe, Evelyn, Ireland, Fletcher, & Vogelsang lakes.

On the positive side, the heavy snowfall the previous winter caused the park to close most of the High Sierra Camps, so we had Vogelsang mostly to ourselves. The surprisingly bad weather with rain and swirling winds caused us to move our hastily assembled camp the first night once we were able to scout out some better spots. One distinct disadvantage of a 8×10 tarp with two people is that it’s harder to find a good spot. I was much happier with the second spot.

The weather did improve the last day and we took a quick dip in Boothe Lake. My brother-in-law spent much of his time fishing (catch & release Brookies) in the various lakes.

After the backcountry trip, we did the usual tourist thing (which is also great) and hiked up the John Muir Trail from the valley to Half Dome. The weather warmed up and we got fantastic views. We got to the summit ~5 pm, and again were able to avoid the crush of tourists (well.. you know, tourists other than us). We got a great site that night just below the shoulder of Quarter Dome with NO one else around. At 3 am that night, I was awoken by a group of people that must have hiked up from Little Yosemite for a moonlit hike to watch the sun come up. I was too tired to rouse myself to follow them since the hike the day before wore me out.

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