Well I flew back out to Yosemite for a week hoping to finish my half dome climb that I was turned away from because of rain in July and was turned away again because of the fire, what luck...
I got in line at the wilderness center on the 7th at 530 am, got exactly what I wanted, 3 days in LYV and half dome permit. Was planning on hiking Clouds Rest and Diving Board also in those three days. I came out of the wilderness center at noon and there was a strange looking little white cloud next to North Dome, came out of my tent in curry at two and the sky behind Half Dome was filling with odd looking white cloads then at three I realized it was all smoke from the just roused up meadon fire. I was so bummed, second time this year turned away. So I went up to May Lake and camped Monday night then hiked Mt. Hoffmann Tuesday morning. Came back to Curry and hiked dried up Yosemite Falls and Yosemite Point on Thursday. I flew back home on Friday and Half Dome reopened on Saturday...figures.
Oh well, made the best of my trip any way and May Lake area is absolutely beautiful! I would have never made it up that way had I not got turned away from Half Dome so I was shown a new area of the park so all was not bad.