Re: Tuolmne Hiking Trails & the upcoming Holiday Weekend

I'm a "day hiker." I have plans to go up to the meadows on June 30 for the long holiday weekend. Was jazzed at the prospect of doing the North Dome trail from the Porcupine Creek lot on Tioga Road. But yesterday one of the Rangers told me that there's still loads of snow on the trail...and that the .8 Indian Rock Arch side jaunt / detour might not be possible. Now I'm questioning whether I should even bother to make the long trip to the meadows at all]. Will all of the trails off Tioga Road...even the short and easy ones...be a soggy bummer? I do realize that a lot of snow could melt in the coming days...Thanks for your input! I can always postpone my trip.

By next week, you should have no problem with the North Dome hike... unless it snows again (or you get trampled by a crazed chicken).

i haven't made this year's trek to Yosemite but based on previously doing that hike shortly after the Tioga Road opened following a fairly heavy winter, I'd say that the first part of the hike (which is mostly in the woods) will probably have a moderate amount of snow but once you get close to the rim, things should be pretty clear. I found the part in the woods a little tiring but it was not what I would call a problem and enough people had been through there that the trail was (mostly) easy to follow. At least on that trip, the side-trip to Indian Arch was no problem snow-wise.

That much said, hopefully somebody who's been up there within the last couple of days will way in on current conditions.

Thanks a million.

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szalkowski
By next week, you should have no problem with the North Dome hike... unless it snows again (or you get trampled by a crazed chicken).

Addendum:

I took some novices on a north rim loop backpack starting on 5 June, 2008 starting at the Porcupine Flat trailhead. On that year, the White Wolf snow sensor hit bare ground on 13 May. We didn't encounter any snow until the Porcupine Creek crossing about 0.8 mile along the trail; as I recall, coverage was around 75-100% down in the drainage and persisted for perhaps 0.5 mile. By the time that we reached the trail intersection which heads up toward Indian Rock (1.8 miles), no evidence of snow could be seen anywhere.

White Wolf hit bare ground on 23 June this year, so you can reasonably expect to see a bit more snow on the ground in that area but nothing that should stymie you.

I'm so jealous. We did the hike last year on July 4. It was warm and wonderful, no snow at all. We had a great time on top of North Dome looking down a the bazillion cars in the valley and feeling smug.

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itchbay
I'm so jealous. We did the hike last year on July 4. It was warm and wonderful, no snow at all. We had a great time on top of North Dome looking down a the bazillion cars in the valley and feeling smug.

But how much blood did you lose?

On that hike, none. I don't think there were mosquitoes on the North Dome Hike. Or maybe by that point I'd used so much 100% Deet for three days in a row that I was immune.

I hiked the North Dome trail in June of 2006. There was a lot of snow and a little creative creek crossing. But doable.

( I think that there was more than a bazillion cars in the valley yesterday...)

I hiked North Dome two years ago in mid-July. Only found one little cloud of mosquitos in the deep woods. Interesting anecdote: While on the west slope of the dome I dropped my digital camera. Mind you, this was the last hike of my visit and the camera held images of my entire trip. The camera commenced to bounce its way down the dome's slope. As I began running after it the thought crossed my mind, "O.K. fool, just how far are you willing to pursue this bouncing camera?" Fortunately, it came to a stop on its own and everything still works to this day. Just has a couple of battle scars. Yes, I would have stopped in time and let it go if necessary, thus enabling continuing years of the thought process.

Becca, I will be in the High Country all next week and will report back to you on conditions for North Dome.

Hi, Ulysses, thanks for your post and input. The weather sure looks iffy on Tues and Weds nites so be careful. If I leave SF as planned on Thursday, my last chance to see your posts will be early that morning. Did you know there's a serious Merced River flood advisory in effect through Tuesday?

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beccawright
But yesterday one of the Rangers told me that there's still loads of snow on the trail...and that the .8 Indian Rock Arch side jaunt / detour might not be possible.

This is a ridiculous statement by the ranger.

There were cars at Porcupine Crk. TH... so I guess people are doing the impossible.
I didn't have enough time (although it turns out I had 4 hours to burn)... otherwise I would
have checked out the porc. creek crossing just for fun...

You can do it! Go! Have fun

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I will do the T.M. trip as planned...but ONLY if (1) the Merced doesn't flood my hotel in Mariposa (a significant possibility) and (2) If the National Weather Service's prediction that "A late season storm will bring a chance of snow above 8000 feet from Yosemite Nation Park to Kings Canyon Tuesday Afternoon through Wednesday Evening" DOESN'T happen.

Check out this Link: http://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=CAZ096&warncounty=CAC043&firewxzone=CAZ296&local_place1=Yosemite+Valley+CA&product1=Flood+Warning

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beccawright
If the Merced doesn't flood my hotel in Mariposa

Um... if that happens... we are all in trouble. (Mariposa isn't on The Merced )

Snow at 8K would be better than huge rainstorm at 8K. If it's only a foot of snow.. it's no big deal...
(other than they will probably close the road)

Whatever you do ... have fun

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Ups...meant El Portal...that's on the Merced. I'm sure everyone is holding their breaths. ChickOn, you say a foot of snow on the trails would be "no big deal?" Even for a solo, intermediate-level day hiker? Really?

Thanks for the input and encouragement.

Um... um...

What I mean is if its a foot o snow... if trail is visible before snow... you should still be able to see trail...
If trail under snow already.. it now have an additional footy of snow.
Hiking in foot of new snow is do-able.

What I recommend you do... is... since you say intermediate...
if you want to do ND from Tioga... just wait until some others come by... and join forces.
Or head out and make sure you know how to get back... turn around when it becomes too much.

Be safe whatever you decide

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I decided to postpone my Tuolmne trip till August. I'm sure hundreds of other people will do the same. ]It's a bummer to cancel but it would be even bummier to have only a few snow-free trails to choose from in the T-Meadows area.

To those who go, be safe and have a great time.

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Snow???? This late??

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hotrod4x5
Snow???? This late??

It can snow in the high country any time of the year.

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eeek

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hotrod4x5
Snow???? This late??

It can snow in the high country any time of the year.

It's supposed to snow above 9,000 feet on Tuesday or Wednesday.

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eeek

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hotrod4x5
Snow???? This late??

It can snow in the high country any time of the year.

If you had lived in an earlier age, it's quite likely that one Desborough Cooley, securely ensconced behind his desk in London, would have taken issue with that statement.


From "The White Nile" by Alan Morehead (bold highlight is mine):

One of the most persistent legends about the source of the Nile concerned itself with a journey that had not been made upon the river at all, but overland, from the east coast of Africa a little to the north of Zanzibar. According to this legend a man named Diogenes, a Greek merchant, claimed that in the middle of the first century a.d. he was returning home from a visit to India and had landed on the African mainland at a place called Rhapta (which might have been the site of the present settlement of Pangani in Kenya). From Rhapta, Diogenes said, he had 'travelled inland for a 25-days' journey and arrived in the vicinity of two great lakes, and the snowy range of mountains whence the Nile draws its twin sources'.
This, at all events, is the story as it was recorded at the time by the Syrian geographer Marinus of Tyre, and it was from the records of Marinus that Ptolemy, the greatest of geographers and astronomers of his time, produced in the middle of the second century a.d. his celebrated map. It shows the course of the Nile reaching directly southward from the Mediterranean to the Equator, and the river is made to arise from two round lakes. The lakes in turn are watered from a high range of mountains, the Lunae Montes, the Mountains of the Moon.
For 1,700 years Ptolemy's map remained a geographical curiosity, endlessly disputed yet seldom absolutely discredited. But then in 1848 Johann Rebmann, one of the earliest missionaries in East Africa, came forward with a sensational report that he himself, like the ancient Diogenes, had journeyed inland from the East African coast and had seen a vast mountain called Kilimanjaro with snow on its summit. This story was immediately ridiculed in London by a certain Desborough Cooley, a member of the Royal Geographical Society, who protested that it was impossible for snow to remain unmelted on the Equator; what Rebmann had seen was the sun shining on white rock. In the following year, however, another missionary, Johann Ludwig Krapf, claimed that he had seen from a distance a second snow­capped peak, Mount Kenya, somewhat to the north of Kili­manjaro. Still another missionary, J. J. Erhardt, produced a map which showed a large inland lake which he called the 'Sea of Uniamesi'. By the early eighteen-fifties there was other evi­dence as well that led to a renewal of interest in Ptolemy's map: the Arab slave and ivory traders, returning to Zanzibar from the far interior, spoke of two great lakes there, one the Ujiji and the other the Nyanza. In addition there were reports of a third lake, the Nyasa, further to the south.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2011 05:22PM by szalkowski.

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eeek

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hotrod4x5
Snow???? This late??

It can snow in the high country any time of the year.

There was a four foot dump in August some years ago that killed a bunch of people in the Yosemite backcountry.

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Old Dude

I'm glad you cancelled because it snowed in the High Country last night and snowed last night and this morning in the mountains above Mammoth. I was at 10,000 feet this morning above Big Pine and it snowed 2 inches and was 22 degrees.