Re: Anyone do North Rim the last few days?

Planning to do Tamarack Flat to Yosemite Falls or Snow Creek about the last weekend of June. Hopefully Tamarack is open, but will obviously remain flexible in terms of trail heads to enter on. Either way, has anyone been on the North Rim in the last few days or so, say at the top of Yosemite Falls or near El Capitan? Trying to get a more accurate read on current conditions (I read the thread regarding the Snow Creek trip to North Dome from a few weeks back).

I hiked up Yosemite Falls to El Cap last weekend. There's still a lot of snow on the shady side of the rim, but it's pretty well consolidated now. Every so often I'd punch through but it wasn't too bad. Water was more of an issue, every little drainage was a raging torrent. Some major course-correction was in order to avoid all the unmapped rivers running through the snow. Certain sections of trail are useless in that regard. Be prepared for some off-trail travel; if you enjoy that sort of thing, you'll have fun.

does anyone think that the north rim may be blocked by any of normally crossable creeks? on the north rim, i suppose that walking upstream should yield better/safer opportunities, no?

Walking upstream is the general rule and will serve you well for the most part, but in some areas a little more creativity may be involved. Bear in mind that most trails were designed for mules and not the conditions we're experiencing now.

For example: Eagle Creek Meadows is currently a series of lakes with tributaries and outlets all around. The trail plows right through the mess, if you head upstream, you will hit a giant pond. Heading east from Yosemite Falls, a better option is to ignore the trail as early as possible, contour directly around the Eagle Tower/Peak ridge, staying SE of Eagle Peak Creek and the meadows and as high as possible. You rejoin the trail when you finally cross Eagle Creek falling into the valley. It's all pretty much melted out from there to El Cap, I went as far as Ribbon Creek which is a full-blown river, you'd probably need to apply similar tactics there.

I'd approach all meadows and drainages with that in mind. Everything designated by a blue line on the map is now a river; there are thousands of little creeks marked only by contour lines. On the other hand, if you dig cross-country, it's a great time to ignore the dashed lines.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2011 02:18PM by QITNL.

thanks! cross country sounds like the idea -- especially with the snowcover -- i had posted earlier that i plan on utilizing the navigational advantage of my circumnavigation around the valley (rockslides, el cap, yos falls, snow creek, tenaya lake, cloudsrest, halfdome, LYV) by simply utilizing the valley and landmarks for, well ..... navigation.