Heading north, we passed through Yosemite Valley before beginning the climb to Tioga Pass. In the valley, people peering at El Capitan and an orange dot on the clifff indicated someone free climbing the cliff face.
On the road to Tioga Pass, Olmsted Point (1) offer fine views to the back of Half Dome. Some volunteers had set up a telescope through which one could see climbers working their way up the dome on a way laid out with cables. Further east, Tioga Pass (2) tops out at 9,945 feet, the highest pass with a road in California. After exiting the park, the descent to Mono Lake is quite steep and much drier in the rain shadow of the Sierra. Mono Lake is a salt lake east of the Sierra that is important for nesting and migratory birds, and the lake level was clearly low.
Driving a few hours north through Nevada and past Lake Tahoe, I met my cousin for dinner in Truckee, back in California.
(1) The noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (designer of New York's Central Park, Boston's Public Gardens and Montreal's Park Mont Royal) visited Yosemite in 1865 to report on the nascent park's potential as a symbol of refounded democracy in the wake of the Civil War.
(2) The pass is named after the Tioga Mine in western New York, which itself is named after the Tioga river in the same area.
View of the back of Half Dome from Olmsted Point lookout
Leaving Yosemite Valley
Someone climbing the face of El Capitan. No thanks!
At Olmsted Point
Climb to the pass
At Tioga Pass
Just the right car for exploring Yosemite
Donner Lake at dusk
The ill-fated Donner Party
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