Trip Report: Yosemite National Park: Upper Yosemite Falls Loop

I was inspired by Bearproof's Late Season Trip Report to make an impromptu trip up and get in my one and only overnight trip of this season before the snow sets in. Despite it being quite chilly, 5% moon, literally the shortest 2 days of the year, and my being in questionable cardiovascular shape having logged zero backpacking miles this season, I was drawn in at the promise of experiencing Yosemite without stumbling over hoards of other people everywhere I went -- something that has prevented me from backpacking in the busy part of YNP until now.

Monday December 19th, 2011: 5 hour drive & car camping in Upper Pines

I made it out of the house at around 5pm on Monday, and a 5-hour journey to Yosemite Village found me driving around trying to remember the layout of the one-way roads in the pitch black. I hadn't been through in about four years. Turns out that from the village store, you follow the "Park Exits" sign to get to Curry Village. With as much propriety as is possible when rolling, hi-beams blaring, into an unfamiliar campground well into its quiet hours, I picked the first site far enough away from any RVs to minimize waking up to the roar of generators or whatever the hell runs all the time on those damned things. Site #27. I brought my tent in the event of snow, so I figured I'd get it out and pitch it on the ground, but the stakes wouldn't go in. The ground appeared to be permafrost ("little Siberia!" chuckled the shuttle drive the next day, when I told him where I had camped and how I had frozen). I figured my chances of not freezing to death were better if I was sleeping in the bed of my truck, rather than on very cold ground. I blew up my Big Agnes insulated air core 4.1 r-value pad, smirking at how much wonderful insulation and padding it would provide me on such a cold night as this, stuck it in the bed of my truck, and climbed into my 15-degree bag. And in no time flat, I was freezing. So on went the long johns, thick socks, down jacket, and wool cap, and it was tolerable... for about two hours, until my air mattress made it obvious that it had acquired a slow-leak somewhere since my last trek, and I was slowly sinking down to meet the cold bed of the truck, where cruel entropy was taking what little body heat I was generating and was transferring it to the truck bed. Though I brought my patch kit, the mattress didn't have an obvious leak and it was 1 AM and very cold -- no time to troubleshoot a leaky air mattress -- so I climbed into the passenger seat of my truck cab, tilted back as far as the seat would allow, and snoozed until about 6am (waking up periodically with shivers).

The low was 22 degrees f that night.

Tuesday December 20th, 2011: Run Around & Hike to Yosemite Point

My first order of business was to go into the gear store in Curry and buy one of those folding z-lite foam pads. I stopped on my way there to snap this shot of my destination, Yosemite Falls, in the morning sun.

Though my 15-bag was clearly not as warm as I needed it to be, I figured with enough clothes and a pad that didn't go flat on me, I'd be ok, so I went to the Wilderness Office to get my permit. Closed for the season Oct 15th, so I went to the Visitor Information Center as the sign instructed for my permit. Closed until 9AM. Ahh, Yosemite. So I sat around twiddling my thumbs while precious daylight ticked away. Did you know in Emigrant Wilderness, you can call the Groveland ranger station for a permit and they'll just leave it out in a big mailbox so that you can pick it up after hours at your convenience? I love Emigrant Wilderness. My thumbs were getting numb from the cold, despite twiddling, so I decided to get breakfast in the cafeteria. I couldn't believe the cafeteria had these same chocolate croissants I lived on while living in Italy over the fall!

After breakfast, I re-packed my bag, parked my truck in trailhead parking near the Pines lot, and caught the shuttle at stop 15 en route to the Yosemite Falls stop. I arrived at around 11:25AM and started hiking Upper Yosemite Falls trail. Here is a picture looking east, halfway up the falls.

Also about halfway up, this is the view of Upper Yosemite Falls from the trail.

It was sunny and beautiful, with the high temperature for the day at 48 degrees f in the valley. There were a half-dozen or so parties day-tripping the trail, and I passed one group of three younger guys with overnight packs. I made it to the trail intersection at the top of Upper Yosemite Falls at 1:55PM, which equates to 3.2 trail miles with about 2500 ft elevation gain in 2.5 hours. I was pleased at my pace, given I hadn't done any trips all year; also, I had an unusually heavy (38-pound) pack, because it would have been unsafe not to gear up for the possibility of snow camping and extra nights out, regardless of the clear forecast. After getting some water from Yosemite Creek at the top of the falls by the bridge, I stopped at Yosemite Point to get a photo.

Then I headed a little further up to the top of the ridge that is just east of Yosemite Creek, at about 7240 ft, and set up camp. Since it was one of the shortest days of the year, I was ready for a very long, cold night. Indeed, it got dark at about 5 PM and I didn't see the sun again until about 6:30 AM the next morning. With so little moonlight, such elevation, and no light pollution, the stargazing was the best I have ever seen in the backcountry. The temperature in the valley dropped down to 24 degrees that night, probably colder 2500 feet higher up where I was camping, and I promised myself I'd save up for a warmer sleeping bag, since I can see myself doing more early winter trips in Yosemite to avoid the crowds. As it was, even though I slept in full winter garb (thick socks, capilene long johns, thermal undies, hiking pants down below; capilene undershirt, capilene long-sleeve, down jacket, cap and ski mask up top) I still woke shivering cold on several occasions. I woke in the morning as things were slowly getting brighter and the sun chased the moon in the south skies.

Wednesday December 21st, 2011 (Winter Solstice): Decision Time

I had originally planned to hike up to Tenaya Lake and spend a night up there, and come back via Cloud's Rest in Upper Yosemite Valley, but since I got a late start yesterday and my sleeping bag was not warm enough for the conditions, I decided to hike out at Snow Canyon. I broke camp at 7:35 AM, after grooming the dirt around my site with a branch to 'leave no trace'. Of course, this effort was totally negated by the campfire I made the night before to keep my hands from going numb during the evening. I guess sometimes you have to say to hell with 'leave no trace' out of necessity. On my hike out, I immediately passed by the campsite of the kids I saw backpacking up the day before, still in their tents undoubtedly sleeping until it warmed up more. Bless their hearts for continuing on far enough to give me my space. I pumped water at Indian Canyon Creek, which wasn't but ten minutes away, and which was mostly covered in ice but still had openings to running water below.

The silt filter on my MSR SweetWater was clogged with frozen water, so I removed it from the line and just used the main filtration cartridge, thankfully without issue. As expected, my 2 liter water bladder was frozen solid, but I made sure it was less than 50% full the night before so that newly-added water would melt, rather than be frozen by, the existing ice. Handy little Winter Survival 101 trick. I saw a use trail coming up from Indian Canyon and figured this must have been the way Bearproof came up from Lower Yosemite Valley. I made it to the intersection with Snow Creek Trail at 9:05 AM, and started the 3800 foot descent back to Lower Yosemite Valley. The entire portion of the trail paralleling Lehamite Creek until shortly after it wrapped around and started heading south was hard-packed icy snow with crunchy snow on the sides, which is what I walked on. It wasn't quite bad enough to dig out my Kahtoola shoe spikes, but I was glad my boots were waterproof. I stopped for a snack where the trail bends from east to south, and to check out an awesome frozen cascade that began at the top with a large, perfectly horizontal rectangular granite shelf. It looked like a big granite bookshelf! I bet this is a sweet swimming hole in the summer.

The switchbacks heading down into the Mirror Lake valley seemed never-ending, but the astonishing views of Half Dome mitigated this considerably! Here is the requisite shot across the valley, which I doubt anyone carrying a camera could resist taking.

I made it down to the valley floor at 11:55 AM, which was in the shade and quite cold. It wasn't icy death as I had worried it might be. After a while I started passing people, and then people who smelled strongly of perfume, cologne, and bath products, signaling my proximity back to civilization. The shuttle got me back to my truck at 1:05PM, and I began the long drive home.

So ended my first backpacking trip in the popular and busy part of Yosemite. Next time, I will probably try to do this earlier in the season, say late October, to avoid spending the evenings wrapped up in my sleeping bag trying to stay warm, rather than sitting on a ledge watching stars and reading. Who knows, the scenery was nice enough that I could see trying to reserve a permit and do the trip in the warm season along with the hundred gazillion other like-minded people.