Tioga Pass
Road closes for the winter after the first significant snow fall, so as the
weather was still good that was where we headed for next.
We drove
down into and out of Yosemite Valley, up onto Crane Flats and took a right
heading up into the High Sierra.
The road
winds through pine forest and past the Tuolumne Sequoia Grove, our first stop
was the beautiful Siesta Lake.
As we
drove higher the scenery changed as we came into rocky granite sections, it was
so blindingly white for a moment we thought it was snow.
I’m not
sure you can see it in the photograph but whatever was used to build the road sparkled
as though some had salted the road with diamonds.
The
amazing rocks around Tenaya Lake.
Created as the glaciers receded over 10,000 years ago, Tenaya Lake is
about 100ft deep. Each spring snow melt
travels down Tenaya Canyon and into Mirror Lake in Yosemite Valley.
There is a
short hike of a couple of miles or so that takes you right around the lake.
The white
stumps in the lake are dead lodgepole pines that are still rooted in the lake
bottom, in anything from 20 to over 60 ft of water. Lodgepole pines don’t live in water, so the
theory is that these trees grew during a very long dry period over 900 years
ago when the lake was much lower.
Although
it’s a gorgeous white sand beach, the water was ice cold when I dipped my
fingers in.
After
eating lunch at the lake we decided to retrace our steps, stopping at Olmstead
Point on the way.
Olmstead Point is
named after landscape artist Frederick Law Olmstead and his son Frederick
Jr. He was chairman of the first
commission to manage Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Sequoia Grove. It is also a starting point for wilderness
hikes, one of which is the 9.6 mile Snow Creek Trail that leads into Yosemite Valley. Definitely a hike not for those of a nervous
disposition or anyone ill prepared.
Olmstead
Point with Half Dome in the distance.
A close up
view of Half Dome from Olmstead Point.
Have fun,
we are!
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