Yosemite was on my list of places to see for a while - and main reason for that was to climb half dome. I had heard a lot from people about half dome so wanted to check that for myself. 4th of July weekend in 2015 was perfect since it was long weekend that year - always a bonus for outdoorsy people.
My friends Anuj, Jerry and Jerry's brother Brian decided to join this adventure.
We applied for day lottery for Half dome on 2nd July. Park offers random lottery 48 hours before the day of hike ( If you don't get lucky in annual lottery which you have to apply before March 31st every year). We had 3 separate applications and my application got lucky in the day lottery.
So half dome hike was on.
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| Yosemite Map |
Day 1 - July 2nd - Thursday Night
Anuj and I drove in Anuj's car to reach our hotel - Yosemite View Lodge right outside entrance of Yosemite Park.
Day 2 - July 3rd
Anuj and I drove to Glacier point via Tunnel view.
Tunnel view is very scenic and popular spot in Yosemite where you can see the Yosemite Valley. We clicked a few pictures and continued on our way to Glacier point.
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| Tunnel View of Yosemite Valley - Half dome at the far distance at the center of the image. |
Glacier Point and 4 Miles Trail Hike-
This is a great spot to get amazing views of half dome. This spot remains closed through winter and spring and opens to public in Mid - Late June. Instead of spending time at Glacier point at mid day, we decided to hike down to Yosemite Valley via 4 Miles trail.
This trail starts at Glacier point and descends to Yosemite valley. This one way hike is about 4.5 miles with altitude change of 3,200 feet - which makes it a fairly steep trail.
One gets breathtaking view of Yosemite valley in about 0.5 miles into this hike. Luckily not many tourists are aware of this trail so real hikers can get uninterrupted view of this valley.
This trail is fairly steep and we realized the difficulty of this trail while descending and saved our energy to come uphill later in the afternoon. We reached to Valley floor without much trouble.
Yosemite Valley is very touristy place and is crowded with tourists. We visited visitor center to refill our water bottles. After spending about 20 mins in the valley, we retraced our way back to Glacier point via 4 miles trail. Now the challenge was steep uphill climb. But we kept our pace and climbed it in 2.5 hours.
We spent some time at Glacier point and clicked some pics.
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| Half dome from 4 miles Trail - about 0.5 miles from Glacier Point |
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| Yosemite Valley |
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| Half Dome from 4 Miles trail |
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| Half Dome from Glacier Point |
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| Anuj at Glacier Point |
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| At Glacier Point |
Day 3 - July 4th - Half Dome hike -
Happy Birthday America!
This was going to be a long day. Half dome is an intense hike with 17 miles of Roundtrip and 5,000 feet of elevation gain. Last stretch of climbing the dome on cables makes it even more intense.
We woke up at around 4 and headed towards the Yosemite Village.
at 5am We parked our car near curry village and started our hike.
Initial 0.5 mile of hike on mist trail is on a paved trail. After initial 0.5 mile you get to a junction of Mist trail and John Muir Trail (JMT). Those two trails again meet at the top of Nevada falls few miles up. JMT takes a longer route to the next junction and hence it is slightly less steep. Mist trail goes along Vernal fall and Nevada fall and is steeper and shorter compared to JMT.
Most half dome hikers take Mist trail to enjoy the waterfalls.
We continued on Mist tail. Jerry took a lead and he kept his pace. Brian, Anuj and I followed him and paced ourselves.
Part of trail around Vernal Fall has steps carved in the stone. This makes section of this trail little steep. We did not encounter any tourists on the way up since we started early. We regrouped at the top of Vernal falls, took some pics and moved ahead.
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| Vernal Fall |
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| Mist Trail near Vernal fall |
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| Top of Vernal Fall |
Past Vernal fall the trail evens out a little bit and we got some time to catch up on our breaths. After a mile we reached bottom of Nevada Fall. Trail continues from left side of Fall. Mist trail meets JMT at the top of Vernal fall. We regrouped here again.
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| Nevada Fall |
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| Brian and Anuj at Nevada Fall |
Trail becomes significantly steeper after Vernal fall and stays steep for about 0.5 mile. My lungs were tested at this section and I lost sight of other 3 guys. But I kept my pace.
Trail reaches little Yosemite valley after steep section.
Little Yosemite is a plateau with a stream which feeds the falls. Overnight hikers use little Yosemite to camp. After about a mile we reached the permit area of Dome. This is where we were able to see dome clearly.
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| Near Little Yosemite |
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| Anuj Near Little Yosemite. |
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| First clear view of the Dome |
We regrouped near entrance of permit area. We came across a forest ranger who checked our permit and warned us about possible storm and lightening after 11am. After this point we decided to go by our own pace and meet directly at the top of Dome.
I kept going at an own pace as trail gains elevation. Views open us as trail goes up. You can see northern part of Yosemite at this point (Something Tourists can't see)
I reached sub-dome and was amazed by steepness of the sub-dome. I continued up on sub-dome and reached the base of Main Dome.
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| View of North part of Yosemite. |
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| View of North part of Yosemite. |
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| View of Dome from bottom of Subdome. |
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| Steep climb on Subdome |
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| View north from Subdome |
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| Hikers climbing up steep section of Subdome. |
Now is the most anticipated and dreaded part of this hike - climbing the cables section.
This section is about 2 football fields long and takes a strong upper body strength. You have to negotiate people who are coming down and make your way up. After about 20 mins on this section you reach top of half dome.
I reached top at around 11am and was the last one to reach up. We took pictures on top and spent 20 mins. Around 11.30am we started retracing our steps.
On the way down we we stayed together.
We started coming across large crowd of tourists from Nevada falls all the way down to trailhead.
We made it to our cars at around 3.30pm.
I had crossed off one of the hikes on my bucket list.
We grabbed a cold beer at the Hotel to enjoy our accomplishment!
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| Add the base of Main Dome |
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| At the base of Main Dome. |
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| Brian and Anuj climbing the Dome |
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| Made it! |
Tips for Half Dome hike -
1) Start early. We started hike around 5.15am
Getting parking near trailhead can be a challenge later in the day.
2) Don't forget to obtain permits - either annual lottery or day lottery
3) Pace yourself. Its a steep trail for most part.
4) Hiking poles come in handy on this hike
5) Don't forgot to carry pair of good thick gloves for climbing ropes section.
People have left their gloves at base of dome. One can use those, but its always good to carry your own pair of gloves.
6) Enjoy the hike. This is one of the iconic hikes in America.
