my first sierra backpacking trip was last june. got lots of advice from the good folks on this site. my son and i started up old big oak flat trail, with the intention of going all the way to tenaya, across clouds rest, half dome and back down to happy isle. however, with flight delays and the remaining snow cover, we ended up shortening the loop - coming back down snow creek 3 nights later. we spent 3 glorious nights making this abreviated loop -- fantastic! obofrt was really cool and provided great views of el cap, bridalveil falls and the rest of the valley.
after loosing the trail to ribbon meadow, we cross-county'd a while and spent the first night well south of the meadow. the next day we found the trail again and popped out on el cap. really incredible feeling to know what you're standing on top of. we lingered, mesmerized, a while and made our way to yosemite falls. lingered a bit more and then headed up to yosemite point where we lingered, mesmerized. finally moved on and camped on north dome - awesome views of the valley and sunset. for a night on north dome, you do need to gather water in royal arches creek or the smaller creek that crosses the trail just after.
the next day we headed toward snow creek, lost the trail in the snow around indian ridge and cross-country'd around indian rock until we ran into the trail again along snow creek. followed the creek past the bridge to the valley's edge -- oh my, the views of half dome, cloud's rest, watkins, basket dome and glacier point were, well, mesmerizing. we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and camped there that night, and while the skies were clear, we experienced gale-force winds which kept us up most the night -- awesome.
the next morning, we decended snow creek trail and spent the rest of the day on bicycles, touring the valley floor. the day ended with pizza con cerveza on the curry village deck, before a night in backpacker's campground. the following morning, we hiked up the mist trail and camped around jmt/cr jct. on the last day of our magical week, we did half dome and returned to the valley for more pizza before driving back to fresno for the next day's flight back to indiana.
the north rim loop, highly publicized in backpacker magazine a few years ago, was a great introduction to yosemite and the sierras for us. in fact, we're returning next month to do a loop up the merced, back around tenaya lake and over cloud's rest -- can't wait!!!
EDIT by : bill-e-g - added [ img ] and [ /img] around faux toes
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2012 07:52PM by bill-e-g.