The North Side (Tioga Peak Series)

(GPS: N37 56.938 W119 14.760)

Looking at the northern side has good scenery too. The picture below is still looking west past Tioga Lake. You can see a lot of the high points of Yosemite. As we work our way to the right side north of Tioga Lake we pass by the ghost town of Bennettville. I am going to skip talking about that area for now and leave that for the next entry since I went there a few hours later that day. The main high point is Conness Peak in the middle of the picture. North Peak is to the right of that and Saddlebag lake is to the middle right of the picture. Later that morning I went to Saddlebag in order to find the trail head to get to Conness. I eventually decided that this was not the year for that hike due to my right foot being a problem. At the very tip of Conness you can see how it is a shadow. This is due to the clouds starting to get darker and covering the area at the time. It still was not too bad when I was up there. That would change on the way down.

This is below Conness and it is interesting because you can see a small little house in the picture. It is the Carnegie Institute that was used for science in the past. I have read about it, but never been to it.
I spent about an hour at the top of Tioga Peak. I did not think it was going to be as scenic as it was so I ended up spending a lot of time taking pictures and using my camcorder. However, one thing I know of in the area around Conness is that the weather can take a dramatic turn. The clouds started to get darker. I decided I had better start moving down to avoid being a victim of lighting strikes.

While I was going down it really never rained very hard. Just enough sprinkling to make me want to continue down at a good pace. I was expecting it to come down at some point.

Darker and Darker. When I eventually got down and drove to Saddlebag lake a mile or so up the road it did come down pretty good with hail for a few minutes. It was not a long shower that morning. I went to Bennettville and made the short hike with it being overcast. Still the time coming down from the peak made for some dramatic gray pictures.

The West and South Side (Tioga Peak Series)

(GPS: N37 56.938 W119 14.760)

Looking down to the west side from Tioga Peak one can see Tioga Lake. Tioga Lake is one of my favorite lakes in the Sierra. It border the entrance to Yosemite which you may be able to see up the road. What is fun about this picture is you can even see the rock in the lake that is obvious when you drive by the lake. It was really great to see this lake from above.
This is a bigger zoom shot of the area:
It was fun seeing all the cars driving up to and by the lake:
The following pictures are starting to look in the southern direction. You can see Dana Peak. Which is the 2nd highest peak in Yosemite at 13053 ft (Lyell being the highest which is somewhere behind it).
Looking more south. Dana in the background and Ellery Lake below:

A bigger zoom shot of Dana Peak:
I remember rowing a boat in the middle of the lake, but closer to the back right side of the picture and hitting the bottom when I was younger. A very strange experience. My dad said he enjoyed trolling for fish here with my Uncle years ago.

Gardisky Lake (Tioga Peak Series)

(GPS: N37 57.340 W119 15.160)

Over the next few entries I will cover many different areas I did on that day I hiked a few places off the 120 highway. If I could pick two days of my most recent trip to the Eastern Sierra that I was the most at peace and happy this would be one along with the Snow Lake trip. I woke up early that morning just intending to go to Gardisky Lake and scout some areas near Saddleback Lake for a possible hike to Mt. Conness at a later time. Although I never did ever climb Conness this year due to my right foot being in a lot of pain during this trip; hiking on scree and snow terrains at an angle up a high elevation was not a good idea this year. I wanted to get home in one piece and knew I had some limitations this year. However, this hike ended up being a really great substitute looking back at what happened.
The picture above is just shows you what it was like that morning at around 7:00am. I am looking back at where I hiked in from. People say it takes about an hour from the trailhead, but even with my bad foot it only took me about 30 minutes. The climb on the trail is steep for people that are not in good shape. It was no problem for me really and was a good sign for me that I could do a lot more than I intended.

This is actually later in the day before I left the lake. I thought I would show these than the shady morning shots. At the other end of the lake the water drops off the edge forming a waterfall that goes down pretty far into the canyon.

This is more of the same direction. This lake did look like a good lake to hike and fish at. It was a good size for that.

The picture above is looking up at Tioga Peak. I looked at it and thought, "Hmm, maybe I should just go and see what I think." I started up it and all it is is granite rocks. It ended up taken me about an hour from the lake. I started out thinking I would not make it, but as I kept going I realized I just needed to go a little further and further. Next thing I knew I reached the summit. It is a relatively easy peak hike. Most peak hikes with good views taken me hours to do. This one was a total of 1 1/2 hours of total hiking time from the trailhead. The views are really good looking into Yosemite. Looking back east to the Mono Lake area was not that good so most everything I have is shot from the north, south, and west directions. Here are a few examples until the next entry:

This is looking back down at Gardisky Lake from the top. Saddlebag Lake is to the high left of the picture.

This is a zoomed in shot of Gardisky Lake.

You can see the drainage of the lake over into a waterfall.

You can see the water drains into the Canyon. There is obviously a lot one could investigate from this lake on top of the other side.