I’ve been trying to get up to TM for an early season trip out to Glen Aulin for a few years and was finally able to get up there for a quick one nighter this year. Left LA Friday night and headed up to TM Saturday morning after a quick sleep at the lovely Bishop Super 8. Picked up our permits and were on the trail by 9.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen marmots here every time I’ve ever walked by.
Rad views of classic TM scenery.
The handful of creek crossings in TM weren’t too bad. We were able to find logs or rocks on all of them including Dingley.
Once we made it out to the first bridge, we could really see that the Tuolumne was raging. The last chunk of the bridge had water running over it, but it wasn't really an issue to get across.
We made it out to Tuolumne Falls and it certainly didn’t disappoint. It was absolutely gushing at what I imagine was close to peak flow.
White Cascade was also rocking.
We had a casual stroll along the Tuolumne after that with nice views of some falls (I imagine seasonal?), that we’d soon get a much better look at.
And by get a better look at, I mean wade through. About a quarter mile of the trail immediately above California Falls was completely flooded out by said falls. Nothing to do but roll up our pants, stroll through, and embrace the wet sock mindset.
The river and all the falls beyond here were absolutely gushing. So much water.
EDIT: Thanks to a keen eye by JKW, it looks as though we fell victim to the classic LeConte vs. Waterwheel confusion! Here's LeConte looking awesome (NOT Waterwheel!!!). We turned back here so unfortunately didn't get a look at Waterwheel...guess we'll have to make another trip out there! Also seems as though most of the pics of Waterwheel online are actually LeConte...
We headed back up past the flooded out trail section and found a pretty sweet camp spot a bit above California Falls.
There was a slight chance of rain all weekend, but we managed to avoid any rain…pretty much perfect weather all weekend.
Conness looking sweet on the hike out.
And the falls/river seemed to be going even harder the next morning. We took our boots off to cross that first bridge because the water was pretty much unavoidable.
Seagull in TM…huh.
Overall a killer first trip of the year. Thanks, guys!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2016 08:23PM by rocknrolltakeover.
