Half Dome Day

Yosemite!  Let's start with the big one - our hike up to Half Dome.  We scored permits in the lottery a few months ago and basically planned our visit around it.  It was fun to bike over to the trailhead from the campground and start walking from there.

The start of the trail, also the start of the John Muir Trail, which is very cool and maybe a trail we will follow the whole way someday (211 miles to Mount Whitney!):

Beautiful trail heading up the valley:

I opted for the Mist Trail instead of the JMT bypass in order to see Vernal Falls.  Fun duck-under rock:

And a beautiful waterfall!  There wasn't a whole lot of water but it was still flowing, and we can imagine how amazing it is during spring snowmelt.  Water flows out of cracks in the rocks and there is a rhythmic "clink clink" as it hits the rocks at the bottom.  I enjoyed spending some time admiring Vernal Falls:

The last steps up to the top of the falls:

A glimpse of Nevada Falls, also tall and gorgeous, just harder to see:

The back side of Half Dome - we're coming!

Starting up the trail on the "subdome," the smaller hump with a lovely trail cut into the rock:

Stunning view of the valley to the east - that's a lot of granite:

Seems like an appropriate place for a selfie, with the cables in the background:

So, I put the camera away and concentrated on getting up the cables.  Wow, that's a steep rock face!  We hauled ourselves up, and I was rather amazed that this is an actual "thing" that people do.  We had brought a lanyard for me, just in case, and I was more than happy to have it along.  Yes please, I would like to clip myself into the cables as backup protection.  With that many people above and below us, and with the rock being THAT STEEP, it made sense to be clipped in (even though it was just to my backpack strap and not a harness).

Wow, just wow.  The cables and posts and planks made it a doable endeavor, and quite memorable.  Eventually, waiting our turn as people pulled themselves up above us, we made it to the top.  Yay!

One of our first views from the top was over to the north rim and the beginnings of a fire, hmm:

A guy taking a picture of a group over on the jut-out rock:

Looking back to where we were just sitting, it is quite an impressive spot:

A view toward the west and the entrance to Yosemite Valley.  It was a bit hazy from the Rough Fire (which is many miles away but huge), happily this particular day was about as clear as it would get:

John took a photo of the valley below (I declined to get close to the edge):

Yep, doing just fine over here on this rock  :)

Yay for being on top of Half Dome!

I was surprisingly more comfortable on the way down (compared to going up, probably because I was wondering the whole way up how the heck I was going to get down!).  Good gloves and a rappel technique worked great.  I was happy enough that I got out the camera for a couple mid-descent shots:

Lots of people still coming up, fun that I got to meet a lot of them and chat briefly at each post:

John made it down way before me (he probably ran down or something) and took the opportunity to snap a couple photos with his phone - that's me at the bottom of the picture:

I made it!  Very happy to have the lanyard, and I highly recommend it for anyone not completely comfortable with this kind of thing:

It was a fun run all the way down.  I spotted a woodpecker in a tree along the way:

John Muir Trail sign:

View from the top of Nevada Falls (following the JMT all the way down):

Amazing trails built into the side of cliffs:

And the view in the other direction:

A decent glimpse of Nevada Falls:

And one last look at Half Dome from that back - thank you Half Dome!

And, oh, that fire is getting larger.  We should probably keep an eye on that...

What a fun day!  Totally enjoyed it.

Devil's Postpile

For Boundary Peak we were camped near Mono Lake, and we were perusing exhibits in the visitor center in Lee Vining when we noticed a familiar photo.  We believe we first saw it at Devil's Thumb, and at that time we were like "We should see that someday."  It turns out that the Devil's Postpile National Monument is relatively close to Mono Lake, so we got up early on our drive-out day and did a quick out-and-back jaunt to the monument.

Totally worth it!

It was just a short hike over to one super cool geological feature - stacks of hexagonal rock columns that have been formed by a cooling lava lake and later exposed by glaciers.  Some of the columns are straight up and down, some bend in other directions, some are in pieces at the foot of the cliff:

A closer look at the loose rocks:

We have never seen anything quite like this!

A hexagonal column of basalt, not a petrified tree...

Wow!

Hard to imagine exactly how something like this can happen:

Love the bendy ends:

Polished "pavers" on the top of the cliff, another glacial artifact:

Well, that was just the funnest thing we could think of doing that morning!  Alright, NOW it's time to drive to Yosemite...

Boundary Peak!

I had been aiming toward Boundary Peak, the high point of Nevada, for a while now but couldn't figure out how to fit it in and then the weather forecast was crappy during our drive across the Great Basin earlier this summer.  Finally we figured out how to get there, between Primal Quest at Lake Tahoe and our upcoming visit to Yosemite NP.  We found a nice campground at Oh! Ridge near June Lake on the east side of the Sierras, parked the trailer for a couple nights, and took off toward Nevada the next morning.

Of particular note on the drive over: Beautiful scenery around Mono Lake, the forests of Mono Mills, then the most fun whoop-dee-do road we have ever driven - route 120 on the way to Benton.  The sign that says "DIPS" doesn't do it justice.  Like a roller coaster in your car!

The dirt road up to the Queen Mine parking was not as much fun, bumpy and quite rutty.  Tug (the truck) took it in stride but we were glad to have decent clearance (4WD not necessary, at least).  We had the parking lot - the whole mountain actually - to ourselves that morning.  And a lovely morning it was, blue skies and we were almost high enough to escape the forest fire haze that has been hanging around this part of the country.

The truck and the wide open scenery:

The valley we drove up to get here:

I started walking up the hill on the 4WD part of the road while John finished getting ready.  Here's a look at the specks of John and the truck.  Hi John!

The fenced off (although not highly secure) opening to an old mine.  I didn't feel the need to do any extra exploring, even if the partially open door seemed inviting once you got past the barbed wire:

Looks like a nice new register box, with the oldest names in it from only a month ago, glad we waited so we could see this:

Starting up the steep trail from the saddle:

First look at the peak from the trail - good morning!

Silly selfie:

The trail was nice and flat (and even slightly downhill) across the ridge and over to the next saddle.  Then... the view of the trail going straight up the next steep slope:

It was a bit of a haul up a trail of loose sand and rocks, then a brief break to traverse over to the final steep climb:

It wasn't a developed trail, per se, but it was easy to follow previous tracks and cairns, working our way ever upward over loose gravel, big granite rocks, a bit of scree.  Then all of a sudden - the top!

Here's the marker on the stone on the summit:

Looking over at the neat white rock spires nearby:

Admiring our beautiful climbing day, grateful it wasn't even too windy (despite the forecast of a wind advisory):

Summit meditation:

Summit selfie - go team V!

Summit relaxation (or - John can sleep here?  Not so much):

All right already with the picture taking  :)

OK, one more, yoga on the rocks:

We hung out for a while longer than we normally do, soaking in the sun, eating snacks, and checking out all the interesting items in the summit register box:

My favorite. all the way from NYC:

The view over to Montgomery Peak in California (hence the name of this peak):

Wild horses grazing and ignoring hikers:

The hike down was a bit tricky with the steepness and the looseness, but we made it.  I slipped a couple times and scraped up an arm and a leg, geez I should go back to the technical climbs I guess.  It was worth it for highpoint #30 - we made it to 30, yay!
http://www.kipley.com/marcy/highpoints/nevada.html

On the way back to the campground we stopped at the south side of Mono Lake to check out the tufa towers.  More neat geology, we love finding things like this:

Always awesome to discover something new (to us), also enjoying the rabbitbrush in bloom:

Walking through the tufa towers.  These were formed by underwater springs when the lake was higher (calcium plus carbonate to make limestone).  The lake is now quite a bit lower but the towers still remain:

Limestone Castle (makes me think of Ireland for some reason, or a structure in the Hudson River):

Neat place to walk around, also of note that the lake is super salty and seems similar to the Great Salt Lake in Utah (complete with brine shrimp):

Not your normal everyday "Adopt-a-Highway" sign:

Next up - our first visit to Yosemite and we're pretty excited!