Over the first couple of hours, from the comfort station through to the top of Nevada Falls, we received some snow fall. The trail was mostly free of other hikers (we saw 4), and completely free of ice. For the first hour or so of snowfall, it was light and wasn’t sticking. Then as we rounded the trail to our first real views of Nevada Fall, it really started to snow. Having the proper gear allowed us to stay dry and warm and we really enjoyed hiking in the snow.
Once we reached the trail junction splitting to the Nevada Fall lookout and towards Little Yosemite Valley and beyond, the snow had stopped and it was the last of it we would see falling from the sky. The trail closest to the Merced River still held a bit of snow, but the more Northern trail was dry.
Having quite a bit of daylight left, we decided to continue onward and spent our first night near the JMT junction, which still showed signs of the trail being closed—which I believe the Park has reopened for day use, but maybe not.
Our tent reached 22 degrees that night, but we were warm, cozy and spent the last few minutes of consciousness watching The Grey. The next morning, as we stepped out of our tent to make breakfast, the temperature caught up with us freezing our water in the camelbaks that we had worked so hard to keep liquid throughout the night. Our itinerary was to hike up and over Cloud’s Rest to Tenaya Lake, or possibly circle around to Merced Lake—based on the trail conditions that we would come upon. Prior to leaving camp, we tuned in and found that those higher elevations were going to experience blustery winds, with temperatures dropping to 15 degrees, and 0 degrees with wind chill.
We decided for a warmer route, and decided to day hike Clouds Rest and spend the night in Little Yosemite Valley.
The views really opened up, and the views that had been hidden by clouds and snowfall the day before were unobscured.
The trail became snow-covered, but it was easily navigated without the use of floatation or khatoolas. The snow provided a nice canvas for all the critters. It was neat seeing all of the different tracks left by the animals, and there were, what I believe to be Coyote tracks, all over the place, including on the summit of Clouds Rest itself.
The hike was enjoyable, and quite warm (relatively). After lunch on top, we hiked down, grabbed our gear, and continued to LYV where we set camp. It was quite sad seeing that there were at least three personal fire pits aside from the two group pits at the campground. It was even more sad opening food lockers to find trash, and empty bottle of vodka. I really wish I were authorized to issue citations.
The next morning, we packed up and hiked to the Nevada Falls lookout where we made breakfast and enjoyed the views. Broderick was really beautiful as it captured the morning sun.
From there we hiked along the Panorama to Glacier Point. At one point we noticed that the sun was at just the perfect angle that the whole of Yosemite Falls was a vertical rainbow. I attempted to capture it in photo, but with a 11-18mm lens, and being nearly 5 miles away, it does not do it justice.
Illilouette Falls was still partially frozen, but flowing strongly.
Once we reached Glacier Point, we started to see more people, and the 4-mile trail showed signs of much use. The snow was compacted—but the views were amazing.
Drove to the Sequoia grove on the way out.
