A comfortable chair was all that I needed to watch the thunderheads build while taking it easy next to beautiful Tenaya Lake. No hiking, no peak bagging, no fishing, just cloud watching on this adventure. Where: Yosemite National ParkDistance: A few feet Difficulty: Easy Elevation Range: 8,150′Date: August 11, 2020Dog Hike? Probably Not My friend Chris planted an idea in ...

It had been a few years since I had climbed to the top of Mount Dana and I was hearing reports that those beautiful sky pilots were blooming so now was the time to make it happen! It seemed like there were about one million switchbacks to reach the top of the second highest mountain in Yosemite (after Mount Lyell), ...

If you want to see an explosion of wildflower colors, this is the hike for you! Some wildflowers were taller than me and some were teeny tiny. Some were quite showy and I had to look closely at some to see their amazing detail. Some even had bugs on them. Wildflowers are putting on a tremendous show right now in ...

If you are up to a good workout to a land that escaped the glaciers, Dana Plateau is a good one. And if you go now, you will see beautiful columbine blooms which are at their prime in the bouldery wash as you hike up there. Those columbines don’t stick around very long though. And you just might get a ...

I love hiking Yosemite’s Mono Pass Trail, a historic Native American trail and there are also many lakes along and off this trail. Some lakes have names such as Sardine, Spillway, Helen, Kuna, Bingaman and Parker Pass Lakes and many aren’t named. I brought my fishing pole with me. . .  just in case. Where: Yosemite National ParkDistance: About 9 ...

I hiked alone but I wasn’t by myself. I walked in the footprints of miners dreaming of hitting a huge ledge of silver, building a town in the Tioga Pass area at 10,760′ elevation to support their mining operations but that town was only there for about 4 years. Oh, and that part about not being by myself? Besides the ...

When those views of Mono Pass, Parker Pass and Kuna Crest are streaked with snow, they contrast so beautifully with those multi-colored mountains. This is one of those hikes that I love to do soon after Tioga Road reopens for the year and those white puffy clouds always liven up the scenery, even if they threaten a bit of the ...

Long before YARTS existed, daily automobile shuttles ran from Madera to Wawona on the road we call Miami Mountain Road today. Before that, it was an old stage route and I had been walking up parts of it the past few months. This time I visited the locations where some of the people that I had written about died and ...

I loaded up my dogs, Sally and Fannie, and drove across Tioga Road the very minute it reopened this year. Like visiting old friends, I made several stops along the way to admire the views, then we all were rewarded with a hike from Saddlebag Lake to Greenstone Lake with incredible views of snow streaked high mountains surrounding the lakes. ...

It was the first day that Yosemite National Park had reopened after the COVID-19 shutdown, a new Day Use Entry system was in place and I was determined to cross through the gate as soon as I could to check out the waterfalls. My adventures always have a surprise or two and this one delivered some.Where: Yosemite National ParkDistance: 10.92 ...