High Sierra Topix

Quite some time I posted a trail report of White Wolf to Pate Valley and mentioned some trails that truly appeared to be very old and, I am speculating here, possibly etched-in by centuries of use by California indigenous peoples. These "trails" were worn well beyond what the area would indicate. In other words, they seemed to be intermittent and randomly findable and not necessarily part of any modern trail system as used by hikers etc. On a somewhat leisurely trip along the Northern Edge of Hetch Hetchy earlier this fall, we did some cross country and found trails that resembled those in the Pate Valley region (as well as further west from Pate Valley). I have posted a photo here: https://trouthugger.blogspot.com/2021/1 ... -2021.html I have also included a photo of a fascinating flower growing out of the rocks. Would love an ID. Click on the images to view it in better detail.
Bernard

try looking up types of Monkey Flower; in particular “Dwarf Purple Monkey Flower”. This isn’t a positive ID, just my best guess.

grampy wrote: ↑Fri Nov 26, 2021 3:16 pm try looking up types of Monkey Flower; in particular “Dwarf Purple Monkey Flower”. This isn’t a positive ID, just my best guess.

Very much appreciated.I think your suggested ID is spot on. It was great to see this splash of color despite the dry conditions.

As for regional plant life, I neglected to mention this fascinating article/entry about piñon trees in the region:
https://yosemitemonolakepaiute.wordpres ... inon-tree/.

Bernard

Interesting note about the old trails. I will look out for them the next time I'm in the area. I can't be of my use with the wildflower ID, but I must say I'm a bit envious of your trip and its likely destination and objectives (I am willing to bet you were successful in the latter). I had long planned to finish my season with an overnighter there, but my October and November schedule became too cluttered with professional events, plus I also had too tasks I was behind on, so my plan for a short fall trip there will have to wait 'til next year.

Old trails can get grown over quickly, so what you could be seeing is an old trail, now used enough by game to remain evident. Bears love to walk on people trails, and the photo of the "trail" across the rock slab could well be a bear path. There are and have been a LOT of bears in that area. I have been on game trails that were so well worn that they looked like people trails, except for being covered in many inches of scat (particularly elk trails in the Rockies, however few elk in the Sierra). And northern Yosemite/Emigrant has a history of sheep grazing- could be old sheep trails.

I do agree with Wandering Daisy that the section of trail is probably still used by game which keeps it from overgrowing. Originally it could have been a part of an old trail that the cavalry used to patrol the park. I tried searching the internet for a map of old cavalry trails in Yosemite but I could only find this one https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail ... government. Here is a snip of the area of the map around the Hetch Hetchy area that shows a black dashed line indicating a patrol route and a line with black dashes and red vertical dashes indicating a scouting route. Both are in the area. The map doesn't show the cavalry patrolling down into Pate Valley but after Yosemite became a national park and the rangers took over patrolling from the calvary and I did find mention of them patrolling Pate Valley on horseback here https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/guar ... trols.html

Wandering Daisy and Phoenix 2000, thank you for the great insights. Apologies for not circling back sooner. According to that map, I would be very much ready to believe that the worn trail I observed was in fact one of those cavalry trails. On a related note, hopefully the new crossing at Wapama will be ready should runoff be high and thus allow earlier and safer access to the region. Any intel on that would be appreciated. Brookie, our other objective (nudge nudge wink wink) was stymied by drought conditions creating unfavorable *rout conditions (rhymes!).
- Bernard