Mount Whitney

Another highpoint!  Made even better with a hiking companion, my brother Kip.  Seeing how he's now a resident of California, he was interested in reaching the high point of the state.  We scored permits in the lottery and planned for several months to meet up and do a group hike.  Yay for things that work out!

Starting out just before dawn, John may not be quite awake yet:

Looks like we're in the right place:

Hey, this next photo turned out well (looking east at the next mountain range over).  I told John that one sign of being a good photographer is probably knowing as you take a picture that it's one of the better ones.  Well, I'm nowhere near being a good photographer :)

Early morning log bridge walking:

Scenic rock formations all around us:

Impending sunshine, with a glimpse of a little lake below us:

And a look up toward where we will be eventually:

Everything above treeline was really cool:

Quick snack break before hitting the "99 Switchbacks":

John counted, and we think there actually are somewhere around 99 switchbacks, except maybe just a couple or so shy.  We had fun chatting all the way up and the time went quickly by.

An excellent trail cut into the side of the mountain:

Popping out at the top of the ridge, the view to the west was even more stunning, wow:

An even more amazing trail cut into the side of the mountain:

Lots of rocks!  This could have been a real "pick your way through the rocks" ordeal except the trail is well-made, well-maintained, and definitely well-traveled:

More rocks, and a hole in a spur:

Looking back at the trail behind us:

There's the top, awesome!

Signing in at the highest point in the lower 48 states:

Mr. Marmot wondering if John would mind leaving the trail mix that someone had dropped?  Nope, sorry, can't do that!  Mr. Trail Cleanup is on the job.  And hey people, please stop feeding the wild animals.

Top of the world!  Or at least, top of California!

We didn't stay very long at the top but managed a whole slew of photos, and since I like almost all of them, I hardly culled any.

Yay for Mount Whitney!

Team V at the summit:

We saw some climbers coming up on a rope from this direction (way cool) and John decided to join them for the final couple feet:

Bottoms up!

Karate Kid/"Yoga" on the rocks (I might have made up this pose):

Really I was just showing off my Boundary Peak scrapage:

Still working on a caption for this one...

Happy to be here together!

Well, time to head back.  Here's the John Muir Trail going down the back side.  I think it's neat that we hiked the beginning and the end of the JMT within a few days of each other.  Maybe someday we'll connect those on foot instead of by car:

Making our way down the valley (and we actually got rained on slightly, first rain for us since Mt Rainier, I believe):

And several hours later... time for pizza!

Thank you Kip for joining us, it was great fun!  Let's have more adventures together sometime.

Highpoint #31 for us (and #3 for Kip?):

http://www.kipley.com/marcy/highpoints/index.html

Scenes around Yosemite

A set of photos from around Yosemite - what a beautiful place!

One of our first views while driving in to the campground:

Thank you John Muir!!

One special highlight was attending an evening presentation by Shelton Johnson, a park ranger who we recognized from Ken Burns' National Parks show.  It was neat seeing him in person, and he put on a spectacular show about the Buffalo Soldiers, some of the first to protect the park.  Thoroughly enjoyed it, thank you Shelton!

Checking out the tree rings at the visitor center:

An Indian motorcycle donated to the museum:

The lovely path up to Lower Falls:

The cliffs above the falls, including a fin that looks like it might not stay up there forever:

A tree growing on the side of a rock face - ?

Yosemite Falls was dry (normal for this time of year), which is reason enough for us to come back again in the spring :)

A pathway for John:

The face of Half Dome:

Mirror Lake - obviously also dry at this point:

Cairn City:

El Capitan!

I biked out to the "Ask a Climber" afternoon event and got to chat with some climbers and ask questions.  There were several parties up on the wall and scopes were set out to look at what they were up to.  Many of them were climbing up the nose:

Examples of climbing gear:

A digi-scope attempt to check out a couple guys hanging out on their camping platform:

The other scope was set up to catch a glimpse of a couple of climbers.  Quite far away, but still easier than watching wolves:

Neat setup, what a great way to get a brief look at El Cap climbing.

On our way out, we stopped so John could see El Capitan (also note the great amount of smoke up the valley, definitely past time to leave):

El Cap in the morning light:

Such an amazing place!  We're excited to have many reasons to go back and visit again!

Glacier Point and Panorama Trail

We woke up to a rather smoky Yosemite Valley, so I was happy I had already planned to climb up high that morning.  I shuttled to the Lodge and walked over to the 4 Mile Trail, starting up the many switchbacks.  I enjoyed the easy grade while gaining altitude at a decent clip.

Soon there were views of the north rim and the walls of granite visible in that direction:

Looking west toward the valley entrance, not sure if this haze is from the Rough Fire (many miles away) or if it drifted down from the fire burning on the north rim above us.  At least the sky above is nice and blue!

High spires above the trail:

There has been a ton of work put into making the trails around here:

Lovely trail in the morning shadows:

Hello lizard:

And... there's the fire and billowing smoke on the opposite rim:

I didn't know I'd be getting a show that morning - at least 3 planes circling at all times, dropping flame retardant and water.  I could have stood for hours watching them come around, fly low over the smoke, drop a load of red powder, then zoom overhead and circle way up the valley to line it up again.  One of the planes was a huge "Very Large Air Tanker," a converted DC-10 that was spectacular to watch.  Possibly the one I got a photo of?

Good morning, Half Dome:

A group setting up to work on something (trail work maybe?):

More views:

Up high on the trail was a good spot to see the extent of the fire, wow, it had spread a lot since we first spotted it from atop Half Dome the day before:

Interesting moss on the trees:

An enterprising squirrel who managed to carry the entire pine cone away with him:

Unlike the "photo opportunity" spot up on Half Dome, this one is roped off from tourists:

Love the view up the valley along Half Dome:

One more shot of the fire:

Looking down at the lodge and Merced River:

Yep, that is definitely Half Dome over there (along with a bunch of other features that I'm slowly learning more about):

Starting down the Panorama Trail, this caught my eye:

Illilouette Falls on the way around the Panorama Trail:

It was a fun run around, up, and down the trail, merging with the John Muir Trail and eventually taking me back down to the valley.  Nice day!

John ran the loop in the opposite direction the next morning and captured this image with his phone:

OK, that's a lot of smoke.  By far the most we have had to deal with this summer, amid all the haze from various wildfires across California and the Pacific NW.  I feel for the people who have to live in these conditions all the time, and I appreciate all the more our ability to drive our "house" away from it when necessary.

Yosemite was smoky, but we were still enjoying it tremendously for a few days.