The road has various blind turns and unguarded cliffs that can cause precarious situations when you come across traffic heading the opposite direction. You have to take Kaiser Pass, a one lane, bumpy road that reaches elevations of over 9,000 feet (one of the highest roads in California). Getting to Mono Hot Springs is an adventure in itself. The campsites at Mono Hot Springs are in high demand, so we booked a site at Mono Creek Campground, just a few miles down the road. And of course, the main attraction of the area is the numerous hot springs that dot the river’s edge, providing a relaxing way to soak in the views. ![]() Towering pine trees dominate the terrain and aroma as they work their way up as high as they can on the surrounding monstrous peaks. An ice cold river cuts throughout the campsites, flowing along steep granite walls and giving life to lush meadows where wildflowers bloom. To me, Mono Hot Springs is a paradise of sorts, an outpost in the Sierra Nevada that tastefully chose to retain its beauty and never overdevelop. Also, I really wanted to show Madison the magical views on the hike to Half Dome, so we had to do our best to make up for the missed opportunity and look for a replacement hike. It would be a slightly different, more remote trip than a weekend in the tourist-filled Yosemite Valley. It had been over a decade since my last visit. All throughout my childhood I had camped out in a remote corner of the mountains called Mono Hot Springs and I knew that I couldn’t go wrong with a return trip. I was not going to give up on the flowing, tree-covered peaks and crystal-clear lakes of the beautiful Sierra Nevada Range. Not wanting to waste the precious week of vacation that I had requested months earlier, a contingency plan had to be put into motion. My third attempt at Half Dome would have to be shelved for the time being. Sure enough, August 5th rolled around and there still was not a damn thing to be seen in Yosemite Valley. The date that you are given in the lottery is the date you have to go.Īs August 6th grew closer and the smoke in Yosemite Valley grew thicker, I started to come to grips with the fact that Half Dome just might not be in the cards for 2018. It would be my third time hiking Half Dome and I was excited for Madison to go for her first.įor those that are unfamiliar with the Half Dome permit system, the final section of the hike, which is strung with cables that you use to walk up the nearly featureless granite formation, had become so jammed with traffic that a permit system was implemented in 2010, making the hike more enjoyable and safer, but also making access more scarce and valuable. ![]() Through a lottery system, Madison and I had been successful in earning two of the 225 daily slots to Hike Half Dome on August 6. I formed a morning and afternoon routine of checking the Yosemite webcams, looking for non-existent visibility through the dense smoke that had ridden California’s westerly winds into the valley. As fires raged all across the state of California, I had my focus aimed towards one in particular, the Ferguson fire, which was rapidly burning west of Yosemite Valley.
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