A Walk in the Wilderness: Day 1- Half Dome

Tuesday, June 17

Beginning: Happy Isles Trailhead (Mile 0)
Ending: Sunrise Creek (Mile 8)
Recorded distance: 13.8 miles
Recorded elevation gain: 6,063 feet

"We choose to do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are had, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills." John F. Kennedy

On the way to the trailhead, we breakfasted at Happy Burger Diner in Mariposa, one of the few restaurants that has burgers at 6:00 in the morning. After we at four big burgers and a ton of fries, we continued to the trailhead in Yosemite Valley. Starting on the trail at 8:00, we were too late to start with the Half Dome day hikers, but too early to be in the hoardes of sightseeing tourists.

The Sign
If you think you should hike the JMT, but you're not sure, this could be your sign. For years I have followed this sign to some of the grandest sights in the world: Nevada Fall, Vernal Fall, Half Dome, or Cloud's Rest. Rarely have I passed the sign without thinking, hearing, or saying, "Mt. Whitney 211 miles, here we come." Today it is finally happening.

A short distance past the sign, the trail forks in two different directions. The Mist Trail follows the Merced River to Vernal and Nevada Falls. In a big snow year, Vernal Fall will shower the trail with a chilly mist, sometimes causing the trail to look more like a creek than a trail. After climbing the large granite stairs to the top of Vernal, the trail flattens out before crossing the Merced River, passing the sight of the old La Casa Nevada, and climbing the switchbacks to Nevada Fall.

La Casa Nevada
In 1870, Albert and Emily snow blazed a horse trail from the Mist Trail to Clark's Point and built a hotel "in the mist of Nevada Fall." They ran the famous bed and breakfast for almost twenty years before selling it and retiring. Emily liked to joke that there was eleven feet of snow there all summer long. To her guests' confused looks, she would reply that she was five feet and her husband was six, making eleven feet of Snow. After they sold the hotel, a Mr. Baxter ran it for three more years before it finally closed in 1891. In 1900 most of the building was destroyed by a fire, and the remaining wood became fire wood for passing campers over the years. Today nothing remains of the hotel but a flat clearing in the forest.

This section of the John Muir Trail, colloquially known to the locals as the "horse" trail, leaves the Mist Trail to take a longer but less steep route to the top of Nevada Fall. This route offers distant views an Upper Yosemite Fall and a close up look at Nevada Fall. Both routes are spectacular, but we all decided to take the John Muir Trail.

Bryson and Casey's strong pace put them at the front of the group most of the day. I lagged behind, and Shane was way behind me. Leaving the realm of the casual day hiker behind at Nevada Fall, we continued on to Little Yosemite Valley where the Merced River flows peacefully along beside sandy beaches. Unfortunately, we had spent so much time at the top of Nevada Fall that we did not have enough time to fish this section of river. Almost everyone we meet for the rest of the day, will either be day hikers on their way down from Half Dome or backpackers planning to the spend the night Little Yosemite Valley's backpacker campground. Our own permits require that we camp at least one mile beyond Little Yosemite so we carried our packs another two miles up the JMT to the junction of the Half Dome trail. There we dropped our packs and continued on, carrying just enough water to stay hydrated while we made the grueling climb to the top of Half Dome.

Half Dome
Can you even think of Yosemite without wanting to climb Half Dome? The last tenth of a mile is so steep that the National Park Service has strung up cables to help hikers haul themselves up the mountain. Someone who is scared of heights will definitely be nervous while desperately clutching a thin metal cable at the top of a three hundred foot drop. Thankfully, none of us fell this time, and the views from the top were worth it.

We originally planned to camp two and a half miles past the Half Dome junction to set us up for a side hike to Cloud's Rest the next day, but most of us were too worn out by this time to even think about Cloud's Rest. We cut our hike a little short and ended up camping in a really nice spot on the edge of the burn scar from the 2014 Meadow Fire. Had we continued with our original plan, we would have ended up in a barren, burnt landscape. As it was, we camped atop a small hill just out of view of the trail. Standing among the blackened stumps were several mature pine trees that had survived the fire and lots of vigorous young trees well on their way to regrowing the forest.

Meadow Fire

In July of 2014, a lightning strike started a fire to the south of the Merced River. The fire crossed the river and eventually burned 4,971 acres between the river and Cloud's Rest. In September, high winds caused the fire to unexpectedly rage out of control and dozens of people had to be evacuated by helicopter from the top of Half Dome. By the end of September, firefighters and rainfall succeeded in extinguishing the fire. This area is a perfect example of how a forest can rebound after a natural forest fire.

Sunrise Creek was a short walk down the hill from our camp, but the fallen trees and ferns made it difficult to access water. Although my expectations for the fishing were low, I could not resist drifting a fly through several enticing pools. As expected, I never did see an actual fish.

We had excellent views of some of Yosemite's most famous granite features. The backside of Half Dome and clear view of the cables was straight west, and the false summit of Cloud's Rest was almost straight north. Moraine Dome was just across Sunrise Creek to the southeast. To the south and a little west was Mount Starr King, and in the distant southwest was Sentinel Dome.