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Traveler's Bachelor Trip to Yosemite

Posted on July 30, 2008 by: Traveler

Closest City: Fish Camp
State: California
Country: United States

After finally coming to my wits, I proposed to Danielle, my Tropigal, at Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. What better location then, for a bachelor trip (don't worry, I did the "normal" routine the night prior to getting married). I decided I wanted to spend a couple nights at Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp. My cousin, Shawn (Acclimate) flew all the way from Ohio to join me and of course Jeff (My Poor Feet) came as well. We drove straight through the night arriving at the Mariposa Grove of Sequoias just after first light.

This was Shawn's first time to the park so I wanted to show him some of the highlights enroute to our driving destination; the road leading to the horse stables below Lembert Dome. As mentioned, we stopped in at the sequoia grove, then picked up our backcountry permit at the Wawona Ranger Station. Next was Glacier Point... I shed a tear seeing the exact place I had dropped down to one knee. Sniffle, cough... I'm Ok. There is a pullout just prior to reaching Glacier Point proper, right? So, at this pullout, when I looked to the right (south) I could see this tiny plume of smoke. No big deal, fires burn all the time here... and it's tiny, nothing but a hundred foot plume! It must have just started is all I'll say for now.

Other points we stopped at were the Tunnel View overlook, Bridleviel Fall, and basically all the good spots in the valley. Stopped along Highway 120 at Olmstead Point and Tenaya Lake. At Olmstead, there was that pesky plume of smoke again... was it getting bigger? Oh well, that's what forest fires do and no structures were involved by looking to the remote forest location. We got up to the stable's road parking area and set out. The hike was nice and leisurely, only 5.5 miles with a cumulative elevation loss of 500 feet. And you couldn't ask for a better backcountry location than Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp. It is part of that whole HSC loop thing, but the setting of Glen Aulin HSC is perfect. Right along the Tuolumne River and below a waterfall (White Cascade) with a nice swimming hole (albeit a freezing one). Glen Aulin even has a resident bear; Cinnamon (I hear she's had cubs). We couldn't have been in camp for more than thirty minutes when Cinammon comes strolling along. We had just set our bear canisters on top of the bear box (double protection) when she comes and starts swatting them around. (Soon I'll post this video on my YouTube account, it will be directly linked to my MOA profile page.) We didn't stay at the canvas cabins with their flush toilets and warm showers and steak dinners... the backpackers area suited us just fine! Of the backpacker areas of the HSC's that i've seen (May Lake, Merced Lake as well as this one) all have very nice tent camping areas. Just think, the High Sierra Camp locations were picked for their surrounding beauty and you can stay nearby for the price of an overnight backcountry permit. That's what I'm talking about!

The next day, we day-hiked to Waterwheel Falls. This was just another 2.5 miles down the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River passing California and Leconte Falls. I wish we would have stayed longer to swim at Leconte Falls. It's a very nice two-step fall with good swimming just below the second tier. There was not really a place to swim at Waterwheel Falls. I was actually scared to get too close to the waterline because the granite is scoured smooth and one slip will send you down river... and over a cliff. California Falls has a big pool for swimming in and it is a stone's throw from the HSC. We just either bypassed it going to Waterwheel or passed it coming back. The area around Glen Aulin has been picked dry of all firewood (that's a good thing though) so we actually went down to the wooded area to the right of California Fall. With a full armload, it took maybe eight minutes to walk back up to the fire pit of Glen Aulin. NOTE: There are also campsites at California Fall that I saw on the day hike down to Waterwheel.

On the day that we hiked back from Waterwheel Fall, we just wanted to take our boots off and swim, so we chose the pool of White Cascade at the HSC. After swimming, we ate and enjoyed a nice campfire with the wood carried up from California Fall. Other backpackers joined us at the fire ring and we all swapped stories. I enjoy the aspect that, as backpackers, we are all part of the same community and there are no animosities or prejudices that come out during discussions with complete strangers. It is always, "Did you see this", or "Last July, we spent seven nights along the rim trail of Lake Tahoe." I do recall three older gals who were a bit livlier than the rest of us (they had a mule pack in their booze).

Day three saw us walking out, back to the car. Shawn wanted to summit Half Dome, so we were going to stay at Camp 4 for the night and do the whole sixteen miles in one day. At Tenaya Lake, I could see that there was smoke ahead but didn't realize how bad it was until arriving back at Olmstead Point. That little plume of smoke had grown just a tad. The smoke was kept in a pretty tidy stream that went clear over our head as far as the horizon in the opposite direction. Oh boy! Well, we thought, this could put a damper on the rest of the trips hiking. Especially since it looked like the back side of Half Dome (Little Yosemite Valley area) was now burning. Heading down to the valley, we stopped at a couple of points and were amazed at what the smoke stream looked like passing directly over the valley. It was both surreal and devastating at the same time. The smoke still didn't seem like it would affect our plans because we could now tell from down in the valley that the fire was not near Little Yosemite like it appeared from Olmstead Point.

We tried to get a spot at Camp 4, but was informed the sites were all full (first come, first serve). Then we came up with the bright idea to sleep in my car (parked in the overnight parking area near Happy Isles) for a couple hours. We would probably wake up early (from being uncomfortable) and be on the trail a lot sooner without having to break down camp. That's later though.. the time was still early afternoon so we decided to go swimming in the Merced. On a previous trip to Yosemite with my beautiful Tropigal, we found the perfect swimming area in the Merced River. Along the north side of the valley loop road, continue straight when reaching the left turn at the bridge crossing over the Merced (the far west side of the valley loop road). Drive a little further and look to the left. In the river will be a very large flat rock (only at lower water levels will this location be a viable swimming option). It is before the junction of Highways 120 and 140, so turn around here if you miss the rock. There is parking along the side of the road. The water was cold but did not numb our limbs after two minutes like at Glen Aulin. The sun was actually shining overhead because the smoke from the fire was still held together like a slipstream.

After swimming we ate at Degnan's Pizza (in the loft above the gift shop) at Yosemite Village. After some hearty food we decided to head over to the backpacker's/overnight parking lot near Happy Isle. There are several bear boxes lined up in a row along the north side of the lot (closest to the road). Our intentions were to spend the night so we start to load all of our left over food and toiletries inside of the box directly in front of my parked car. Man, someone left a full bag of chips inside this bear box. Better be careful to not crush them with our stuff. Courtesy, right? As we are in the process of loading up the box, we see a park ranger checking all vehicles to make sure they have no food or other smell goods in plain sight. See, this lot has been here for a very long time and the bears seem to know that the cars parked here offer tasty treats (surprisingly, with all the literature and warnings, food is still left in plain sight warranting further investigation by the hungry bear population). So we start talking to this ranger, who actually turns out to be the bear biologist of Yosemite. So at the trunk of my car, he begins telling the three of us about all the bears who have turned windows into tacos by peeling them down (he said nightly in this particular lot). Then, about 15 feet away (at the bear box on the opposite side of my car) we all hear the very distinct sound of a plastic (chip) bag opening. We all stop talking for a brief instant when the biologist begins to say, "Is that a", and shines his flashlight on one of the largest bears I have ever seen outside of a zoo. In it's mouth was a the bag of chips. Apparently, when we saw the park biologist approaching, I forgot to secure the bear box and this behemoth sneaks up, snatches the bag in his mouth and then looks shocked when it's spotted in the biologist flashlight beam. Even more shocking was when the bear biologist starts chasing after yogi and yelling at the top of his lungs, "Oh, you better run bear. Don't let me catch you!" The biologist took off so fast that his second flashlight came loose from his belt. We recovered his flashlight next to the bag of chips about twenty feet from the bear boxes. The chip bag was still unopened but did have a few tooth marks. Better brush the saliva off and put this back! Guess we are not staying here tonight... the park biologist returns a couple minutes later and we give him back his flashlight.

He tells us that there should be enough room at Camp 4 and to try there again. We arrive back at Camp 4 to see numerous sites with room for three more campers (the site capacity is based off of the number of people, not tents). So, after walking out from Glen Aulin, driving down to the valley, swimming and almost becoming yogi fodder, we have a nightcap to cap off the night. We wake up in the morning to tents (and everything) covered in ash. The tidy jetstream apparently shut down because all the smoke had settled into the valley. Not that we were going to hike in 16 miles (and 4900 ft. up) in smoke, the Half Dome trail was closed. Decision final; we're heading out. After rising above the valley (toward Wawona) the smoke was already clearing and by the time we reached the Mariposa Grove of Sequoia's, there was a deep blue sky overhead. Man, I thought, I would be disappointed, just arriving to the park, and seeing blue skies only to drive down into the smoke filled valley.

Out of curiosity, I tracked the progress of the fire from home... it burned for approximately two more weeks.

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