Saturday, October 14, 2006

Cloud's Rest Hike (Part 1)

(GPS: N 37° 46.065 W 119° 29.355)
Cloud's Rest is an easy hike with some great views. All throughout the year I like to click the live cam to see how Cloud's Rest and Half-Dome are doing. Cloud's Rest is the high point just behind Half-Dome in that live cam.

This hike was done on August 8, 2005. My brother and I had just done Matterhorn Peak hike a week before and wanted to go into the heart of Yosemite for this one. This is not really a tough hike in that it is all trail to the top in a few hours. We started near the end of Tenaya Lake at around 7:00 am. The beginning of the hike was about a mile or two of flat walking.

We were able to see Cloud's Rest at the very beginning. It is the highest point in the center.

Then it was uphill on what felt like a stairway. The rocks they have put into the ground there were very much like walking up a stairway. The only annoying problem with this hike is after you gain a thousand feet you then descend about five hundred feet. In the next picture one can see the tip of Cloud's Rest on left and Half-Dome in the center in the background.
Here is a zoom shot of both peaks.
At one point were were meandering back and forth through this pond.
We encountered a handful of people in the morning. More so on the way back. At this point in the next picture we saw we were very close to the top. We just had to traverse the forest. The trail led us to the right. Next time I will show the views from the top.