I just completed a five-night trip with my daughter and son from Tuolumne Meadows to the Lyell Fork of the Merced. Our trip covers a lot of the same ground that Wandering Daisy describes in her recent report, but I guess that's not too surprising given that everyone has been crowded into Yosemite recently due to closures and fires. I decided to post a quick TR anyway in case anyone is interested in recent smoke conditions.
We drove up to Tuolumne, picked up our permit and hiked up to Nelson Lake. There were quite a few more parties at Nelson than I had ever seen in the past, but it's a big lake and we didn't feel particularly crowded. The winds were much more calm in the late afternoon than is usually the case.
- Nelson Lake
The next day we used wildhiker's excellent beta to head cross country to Emeric Lake. Descending the slabs above Emeric was easy.
- Emeric slabs
However, as forecast, the winds had shifted to blow in from the south, bringing in the KNP Complex and Windy fire smoke. On more than one day of our trip, skies in one direction would be almost completely clear while in the other direction views would be partially or completely obscured.
- Same slabs, Emeric Lake, smoke
The Tuolumne rangers had informed us that probably none of the creeks that cross the high trail above the Merced would still be flowing, so we stopped for the night at Lewis Creek. That evening during dinner, our tents were quickly coated with ash that was floating down like a flurry of snow. We decided if conditions didn't improve by the next morning we would head back home early. As a consolation we were treated to the sight of a dipper cavorting in and around the creek (no photos as it was too dark).
The next morning the ash fall had stopped, the wind had shifted somewhat and the skies had begun to clear, so we soldiered on. As it turned out, two of the creeks in the side drainages of the high trail were still flowing nicely, including the second one at Cony Crags. By the time we reached the western meadow of the Lyell Fork, the skies to the north and east were completely clear although there was still a fair amount of smoke to the west. This is an incredibly gorgeous area which my photography skills don't come close to doing justice to.
- Western meadow, Mt. Ansel Adams
- Evening light
We decided to abandon our plan to cross over into the Hutchings Creek basin and instead took a layover day and day hiked into the upper Lyell Fork, making it as far as lake 10999. The gods must have been smiling us as we had our clearest skies of the trip that day, although I agree with Daisy's assessment of the uppermost portions of the basin as being a little too austere.
- Lyell, Rodgers, bit of lake 10999
- lower basin lakes
- lake 10217
The following morning as we were heading back the skies were still clear to the west and we got some of our best views of the Clark Range.
- Red and Gray, more easy cross country
We made it to our final camp at Bernice Lake just as the smoke from the south was starting to drift in again.
- Bernice, Parsons
By the next morning, the smoke had settled in leaving us with a long smoky trudge down Rafferty Creek back to the car.
- smoky Bernice
On the way down, we passed the usual assortment of unprepared Rafferty Creek hikers asking questions like "where is the next stagnant pothole we can filter water out of". It wasn't the most pleasant hike out, but all in all we felt lucky to have had some very nice days in a spectacular part of Yosemite, especially given the iffy fire season conditions.
