Re: King Kong Rock!

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Where's this rock located?
.

Guess... wild guesses are ok. But don't download the photo to try to get the date.

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trail coming down from cloudsrest

Kinda looks light the right hand side of this thing:

Yeah. You got it. I guess that is the western most "Pinnacle".
On the way back down... looked up... and was at just the right angle of the dangle
and there was Kong. Of course I get all excited about this... and was
happy the wife saw it right away too and enjoyed it. So... we saw Jaws and King Kong
in the same day. Awesome.

On the way up I told her it was "The Pinnacles" and she said "don't look nothing like a Pinnacle".
Eventually we got east of the eastern one... and ... well... see for yourself:


There's more on the ridges S of Clouds... some interesting stuff... go check it out next time
you are in the area.

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Quote
chick-on

On the way up I told her it was "The Pinnacles" and she said "don't look nothing like a Pinnacle".
Eventually we got east of the eastern one... and ... well... see for yourself:

Heh, from this angle it looks more like E.T..

There's two main "Pinnacles". This is the eastern one. Kong was the western one.
The western one is barely visible just left of the tree that is in the center of the
photo with the top chopped off.

But yeah, I can see how you can see E.T.

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Oops! My reply was intended as a wild guess, didn't mean to shut the ballot boxes so soon.

The ridge between HD & CR is one of my favorite hikes in the park, that's for sure. If you like a little spice, there is a system of ledges on the left side of my photo that will take you right to the top of that sucker. There's an awesome little campsite (dry) up there, too.

Thanks. I kinda wanted to get to the top of the Pinnacles... but settled for what we did this time.

Here's the view of Kong Pinnacle along with the Eastern Quarter Dome:


and Clouds Rest... and Tenaya Canyon...

Thx

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have you followed the ridge from clouds rest to HD? i imagine it would save quite a bit of time over the trail.

I have, yeah, a couple of times, and it sounds like the chick-on has, too. Schaefer lists it in his bible so it's no real secret - that's where I got the idea. I did the ridge direct with a daypack, with an overnight bag it's easier to cut from the top of the switchbacks below CR down to the quarter domes. Or vice-versa. Other short-cuts are available. From the QD's to the HD is an easy hike, as long as you don't walk into thin air while admiring the views.

The trail from CR to HD is dull as dirt, crowded as hell, loses a lot of elevation, was built for mules. The only reason to head down there would be water. Or you can have a nice nap during the afternoon thunderstorms, wait for the solution pockets to fill, head over to HD after the fireworks end and the dayhikers are washed away. At least that's what happened to me.

Here's the ridge between chick-on's two pinnacles, real fun:



Some more photos here: http://www.qitnl.com/v/052809

A good early season warm-up, this makes me want to do it again.

Nice. Yeah. Many times. There's a map with talk here:
http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?3,29842

Here's actually what we did on this particular trip:


By this trip I mean this:
http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?3,52819

I'll mention it again in case it's lost in all the above or whatnot.
After the traverse in front of Kong... before you do any switchback you can x all the way to HD by
staying close to the edge. YMMV. In the trip above we took the switchbacks down a bit
b/c the wife didn't want to do the steep down on the snow covered dome above EQ.
(Heck she didn't even want to touch ANY Manzanita this trip for some reason)
Once on 1/4 stay close to the edge and explore. Just great stuff.

Here's a different view b/t 1/4 and 1/2:


As Joe said... the CR trail blows after you are on the switchbacks. Didn't know Schaffer had this route
in his book... my old 1997 copy didn't (which I've read a zillion times dreaming and saying "gotta go here and here and here" )


Have fun

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