We were looking for an easy "day off" hike on Friday, so we did some off-trail hiking at Ostrander Rocks and Illilouette Ridge. Perfect day. Gorgeous easy hike. No people. I'll add this to my list of short family "bushwhacks".



I would have sworn that Chick-on or somebody recently posted about this hike. But all I can find is this link: Illilouette Ridge

We first hiked over to the rocks, and decided that there was no easy way up the highest (north) one. Then back to Illilouette Ridge and along it to its north end, which is close to the parking lot for Sentinel Dome. Didn't see a soul until we hit the lot. One guy had gone back along the ridge to get the car and bring to the to Sentinel Dome lot.

Our only problem was a mostly dead camera battery. We will have to go back and take more photos. Here is a photo of a neat rock with a horizontal hole and a black-looking vertical one that goes all the way through.




Here is a view of North Dome, Basket Dome, and the tops of Washington Column and the North Dome Gully.


The hike along the ridge is 2.5 miles. I recommend doing it from south to north, because the views just keep getting better and better as you go along.

You can park on the wide shoulder of the road, which is visibly between the ridge and the rocks. Waypoint 6 on the map. After hiking to the north end of the ridge, just hook back to the parking lot, waypoint 11 on the map. If you don't want to do a car spot, just park at Sentinel Dome lot and hike up from across the road.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2012 10:56AM by wherever.

After a late morning bike ride in the valley, my husband and I drove up to Washburn and Glacier Point on Friday (no hiking.) It was indeed a beautiful day...many days of the week were what I call HD. If you're wearing polarized sunglasses, you can't believe your eyes how clear it is...so many details visible.

If you're only going to go to the best view on the north end of the ridge, the best place to park is the G9 turnout.
This about 1/4 of a mile past the Sentinel Dome parking lot towards Glacier Point.
message post with G9 photo

You reminded me how cool this ridge is... so we (read I) decided to
start our trek up to Hoover Lakes at G9. Missed the holey rock on way in...
got it on the way out ... thanks. It's a sweet ridge. Wife loved it.
You can also park at waypt. 6 in the photo above. There is some old
tele-something wire and knobs that runs b/t GP rd and the first knob east
of it. Also the little saddle between that knob and Ill Ridge... to me ... that
kind of stuff is what I just love about Yosemite. Great little open area that
you wouldn't expect.

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Quote
chick-on
You reminded me how cool this ridge is... so we (read I) decided to
start our trek up to Hoover Lakes at G9. Missed the holey rock on way in...
got it on the way out ... thanks. It's a sweet ridge. Wife loved it.
You can also park at waypt. 6 in the photo above. There is some old
tele-something wire and knobs that runs b/t GP rd and the first knob east
of it. Also the little saddle between that knob and Ill Ridge... to me ... that
kind of stuff is what I just love about Yosemite. Great little open area that
you wouldn't expect.

You know that I like to find old artifacts. We did park at waypoint 6 and hiked up from there, but didn't see any telephone wire. We saw something interesting at the north end of the hike. In the flat woods at the north end of the hike, halfway between the ridge and the road, where my track makes a little detour. Someone had bulldozed an open trench (more than a hundred feet long) in the ground and used it as a dump. Hundreds of bottles, rusted steel cans, and some bigger stuff. No aluminum soda cans or pop tops. I figure it dates back to before the burning down of the Glacier Point Hotel. When the hotel died, they just walked away from it. That would make it fifty years old, or older. My camera was dead when I was there, but I plan to go back some time and get photos to embarrass the Park Service with. And see if I can find something to put a date on the place.

Maybe I'm confused, but G9 is a strange place to start a hike to Hoover Lakes. Did you hike down to Glacier Point and out that way, or did you head south and down the ridge?

Here is Chick-on's photo of G9. It's at the high point adjacent to Sentinel Dome. https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-SF-H_x3AxkM/TkMf8WmM9LI/AAAAAAAARnA/SCgOLkTF_B8/s1600/P1250728.JPG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2012 09:32AM by wherever.

Hmm... well I guess that explains these:

I didn't run into any this time... this photo is from 2010 when first went up there. I went further north
this time both in and out and didn't see any bottles. I'll have to go back and check it out.

Here's the wire... I took this for you. (I know you like this stuff):

I don't see this line on any old maps that I looked at.

As for a strange route to Hoover Lakes... well... sure... looked like this:

I have the entire route if really interested... but this is the area in question.
(the theory was ... if I can hike on 41 from Grouse to Chinquapin... I can do this little bit... )
And we were laughing on account the VERY first thing we had to do was crawl over a log the second we
got onto the Mono Mdw trail. Precious.

The hike down was steep but interesting...


And the creek... that is a Yosemite Nugget of Gold...

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