Re: Taft Point

My friend and I want to take the walk to Taft Point from the parking lot in the near future for some photography but I don't want to go until Sentinel Creek is a non issue. By that I mean it's an easy hop across it, no wading or looking for logs to cross, and no snow on the trail. I'd appreciate if anyone has been out there recently or maybe is going this weekend to post what the conditions are like.

I was out to Taft Point several times in the late 80's in late May or early June and I don't even remember there being a creek. Last year in early June I took some first time visitors to Yosemite and got skunked on our attempt to go to Taft Point because it was snow bound and the creek was a raging 10' wide river. I know last year was exceptional but the recently posted pictures of Sentinel Falls looks there's still lots of water despite the low snow pack.

Hmmm, I don't remember any big stream crossing either. But the map shows crossing Sentinel Creek. I am sure someone who hiked it more than once can tell us.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2012 09:13AM by hotrod4x5.

That is an easy crossing even in high water conditions.

Were you there last year in early June? When the rangers had the sign posted saying not to try because people were getting lost? There were four of us there walking up and down the creek bank in the snow looking for a crossing. There were no places unless you were willing to walk through 2 or 3 feet of fast running water.

There were a lot of people hiking Taft and Sentinel the last couple of weekends.
Sentinel is down from two weekends ago now and a lot of snow has melted.
It's interesting that they have a bridge across the creeklet going to Sentinel Dome
but I guess nothing across Sentinel Creek. At least I don't remember one the last
time I did it without snow... sorry last two weekends we were going to go that way
but for some reason or another we didn't. If you would have asked before last weekend
I would have made it a point to check that particular crossing out.
Anyway, I too forgot about this crossing... mainly b/c the last 2 times went over
it was 4+ ft. of snow.
This was the creek on May 21 of 2010:


Last year I took the ski trail to the road and crossed it there... again via snow bridge...

Regardless of all this I really think it should not be an issue now. And if you wait another week, say go
on the 19th I can assure you there will be no issue. Pothole meadow had almost no snow last weekend.
Hope this helps or is at least amusing

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Thanks much for the picture. That's sort of how it looked last June but no snow bridges. The creek with the bridge going to Sentinel Dome had less water than Sentinel Creek did last June.

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Calaveras
Were you there last year in early June? When the rangers had the sign posted saying not to try because people were getting lost? There were four of us there walking up and down the creek bank in the snow looking for a crossing. There were no places unless you were willing to walk through 2 or 3 feet of fast running water.

Maybe I'm confused. When we crossed in high water conditions (Early June 2007 or 2008 I think) we were on the loop trail from Sentinal Dome the crosses lower down the creek and did not have any issues. Plenty of Logs etc to make your way. Last year was probably the highest I can remember though. Thats a pretty cool loop trail IMO. There are some really cool rock formations and some really cool viewpoints if you wander towards to valley side off of the trail.

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boomtown

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Calaveras
Were you there last year in early June? When the rangers had the sign posted saying not to try because people were getting lost? There were four of us there walking up and down the creek bank in the snow looking for a crossing. There were no places unless you were willing to walk through 2 or 3 feet of fast running water.

Maybe I'm confused. When we crossed in high water conditions (Early June 2007 or 2008 I think) we were on the loop trail from Sentinal Dome the crosses lower down the creek and did not have any issues. Plenty of Logs etc to make your way. Last year was probably the highest I can remember though. Thats a pretty cool loop trail IMO. There are some really cool rock formations and some really cool viewpoints if you wander towards to valley side off of the trail.

2011 was a horrendously high water year. Even this year had some days of very high water on Sentinel Creek after raining.

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Old Dude

We took the trail from the parking area on GP road and you run into Sentinel creek right away. I looked at my records for rainfall. My average over the last 9 years is about 32". 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 were both dry years, comparable to this year.

2006-2007 - 21.67"
2007-2008 - 23.01"
2010-2011 - 50.06"
2011-2012 - 22.43" so far

Anyway we're still looking to go to Taft Point this week so I hope the water low in the creek.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2012 02:44PM by Calaveras.

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Calaveras

Anyway we're still looking to go to Taft Point this week so I hope the water low in the creek.

It is (we did the Taft Point/Sentinel Dome loop Saturday).

Thanks for the update! We're set to go.

Just a point of historical trivia. According to this 1912 Map, it looks like the trails from Taft Point/Sentinel Dome trailhead parking lot to Taft Point and Sentinel Dome were actually an earlier alignment of the Pohono Trail, so current Pohono Trail from Taft Point to Sentinel Dome is a new alignment of the trail. In other words if you take the current Taft Point trail you're actually traveling on an earlier alignment of the Pohono Trail:


.

Note also there used to be a Peregoy (not sure I got the spelling right) Meadows trail from that location.
(I think it's called McGurk now)
The xcountry in that area is pretty simple... so if the creek was an incredible issue... you could start
further west, west of Pothole Meadow and follow the ridge sorta... down to Taft.

CORRECTION: Peregoy is the Meadow at Bridalveil Campground

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2012 10:25PM by chick-on.

I noticed that on the map too. I guess there probably wouldn't be any signs of that old trail today, except – maybe – some old trail blazes on some old trees.
.

It would be interesting to overlay the Glacier Point Road portion of that map, onto a current map.

The Glacier Point Road has been re-aligned in many places over the years.

My understanding is that it used to go directly through Bridalveil Campground, and if you go to the north end of the Washburn Point parking lot and work around under the vista point you'll find a section of the old Glacier Point Road. You can actually walk this section for a while until it crosses the existing road. I wasn't able to follow after that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2012 09:08PM by qumqats.

Berry interesting:

This is 1970 traced onto 1938.

The other section you mention you can walk on today. It goes from Bridalveil CG all the way to Chinquapin.

Only other interesting thing is this:

This is about 1/10 mile south of current GP road and about 1/4 mile west of Summit Meadow...
Not sure what the deal is exactly... since it was covered in a couple feet of snow in December when walked by it...

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Just thought I mention I went to Taft Point on 5/17 and Sentinel Creek was not an issue and there was almost no snow to be seen. It was an easy one rock step across.