Leon Turnbull Photography

I slept horribly in my vehicle. I do not think I got even two hours sleep. I crawled out of my sleeping bag at 4AM and drove into the park. There were a surprising number of people already up and driving into the park. Ugh. So crazy.

I was still tired from hiking the day before. My leg was still feeling cramped. On the previous day I tripped over a branch and my leg cramped up badly. I was down on the ground for five minutes before I could move. The rest of the hike I was very careful not to fall again. I was not sure how much hiking I could do on this day and I had a tough one planned.

I have always wanted to hike to the base of Ribbon Falls (on my bucket list) but this was not my initial plan. I was planning to hike up a certain trail to a new waterfall. This trail seemed to be an old road at some point in the long ago past because it had been paved and there were still remnants of this. It must have been a very bad idea to build a road here. A large number of rock slides and fallen trees have now obliterated it. It was not easy climbing over all the fallen trees and slides especially considering I was so tired to begin with, but I continued up the trail as far as I could. I was within about a mile of the waterfall and then the trail became impassable. It was just too overgrown and there was poison oak as well. Perhaps it could have been done but I did not feel like bushwhacking the last mile. I turned back. I will try this one another day via a different route.

It was still early so I decided to do the Ribbon Falls hike. If I had known how difficult it would be I probably would not have done it but then I would have missed out on something very special. There is a well defined trail up along the creek, a short distance to the waterfall. It is up hill of course but how bad could it really be? Ummm, how about very bad? You gain a whopping 1300 ft. in elevation in about a mile. There is no joking around on this trail. It is straight up!

I was dead tired when I finally came into view of Ribbon Falls. Holy camoley! What a glorious spot! The entire 1612 ft. drop of Ribbon Falls is right in your face. It is absolutely breathtaking! The entire area is very misty and wet and cold and windy, making it quite difficult to photograph. I moved back as far as I could to take photos. I rested on a rock, enjoying the tremendous view and ate my lunch. It was only 8AM or so but I was very hungry and tired.

I was just a little upset to find a large garbage bag hidden behind a rock up here. It was way too big for me to carry back down. What the hell? What jerk would haul this big bag up here and then just leave it? You can bring it up 1300 ft. and not take it back down? Unbelievable.

Reluctantly, I picked myself up and hiked back down the trail to my car and drove home. It was a glorious day in Yosemite National Park.

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In 2023, of course, we had a huge winter in California. You might think that I would have gone to Yosemite National Park quite a few times last year. I did not go once. It is probably the first year ever that I did not get to Yosemite. To be true, I had 2 or 3 solid plans to go there but they all fell through for one reason or other.  This year I will rectify that mistake. I have already been to Yosemite once (Eleanor Creek Falls – an amazing trip). This past weekend was my second visit and I have at least one more trip planned in the near future (backpacking permit is already in hand).

It was the Memorial Day weekend. I had no reservation to enter the park. You need a reservation. I HATE this new rule. You need to plan your trips well beforehand. I am not one to plan so far in advance, normally. I will come up with my weekend plans just a few days ahead of time. Where I go depends on many things, including the weather and what I feel most motivated to do. Oh I think I will go to Yosemite this next weekend. Not! I do not have a permit! Well, of course you can still go to Yosemite without a permit. You just need to enter the park before 5AM. That means getting up at some ungodly hour. That is a big problem as well but that is exactly what I did this long weekend.

After church on Sunday I drove to Yosemite. My plan was to do a hike in the evening to a couple new waterfalls, sleep in the car outside the park, then get up at 4AM to drive into the park and do a second hike.

These first two waterfalls are inside the park but you have to walk in, not drive in. It is about a 4.5 mile hike one way. There is a trail but it is long gone. Obliterated from recent fires and brush regrowth. There are many downed trees you have to climb over. It is very difficult. I was really worried about stepping on rattlesnakes. It is about the right elevation and with so much brush and downed trees it seemed prime location, especially beside the creek. I saw none, thankfully. It also seemed prime bear territory. I saw none of those either. Just one deer. The hike really wore me out. Was it because I am out of shape? Or was it just due to all the downed trees and bushwhacking? Probably both. The first waterfall is pictured here: Upper North Fork of South Fork Tuolumne River Falls, 44 ft. high. I knew beforehand this would not be a great waterfall as I have seen photos of it. It is a nice little cascade but nothing too exciting. I expected the lower falls to be much better, however. On Google Earth it looked to be a real nice one. Google Earth lied. It was worse than the upper falls and hardly worth taking a photo (though I did).

I got back to my vehicle after dark, very tired, bruised, and beaten. But I got two more Yosemite waterfalls under my belt. Could I get one more tomorrow? Stay tuned…

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My planned hike was a very difficult one mostly all off trail and over 4000 ft. elevation gain. I had no room to spare and only two nights available because I had to get back home for a few important things (one of which was my anniversary – not much wiggle room for that one). However, it took much longer to reach Laurel Lake than anticipated. I did not think I’d be able to make up any of that time on the rest of the hike (from Laurel Lake it gets harder not easier).

The further I descended down into the canyon the more I realized I would not make my intended destination to the big waterfalls. I would be hard pressed to make it to the first of the waterfalls. I really needed two more days for this hike than I had planned but I did not have any more days. The canyon is absolutely stunning. It reminded me of West Cherry Canyon but it is much more difficult. There is quite a bit of brush to negotiate with some (but less of) the fantastic open granite spaces yet still the canyon walls are incredible all around you.

I came to a place where I could not continue. At least not very easily. By this point I was incredibly tired, it was getting late, and there were still three more hours before I would even reach the first of the waterfalls. Even if I could make it that far it seemed pointless to continue because I could not make it where I really wanted to anyway. As I said I needed a couple more days which I did not have. I decided to retreat.

I came to this small waterfall on Eleanor Creek and found a place to camp. It was actually an incredibly pretty little waterfall about 20 ft. high and definitely a worthy one. I call it Far Upper Eleanor Creek Falls. I enjoyed my camp here with the tiny lizards. They were about 2 inches long and scampered about, jumping behind the rocks when I came too close to them. They were hilarious.

I don’t ever sleep in but sometimes I would like to. I was up at 6AM. Sigh. I packed up, had my breakfast and coffee, and started my journey back home. I still had a long way to hike back to the car. It took 9 hours to get this far and I anticipated the same back.

If you know exactly where to go that does save some time and I got back to Laurel Lake an hour ahead of schedule. From there it would be all on trail and mostly downhill. I would not go back down the Frog Creek canyon. I was done with all the off trail anguish for this trip. That means I would have to cross Frog Creek at a different place. The creek was flowing “somewhat” gently at the crossing but it was deep and I realized that this crossing would probably be up to my waist level. All my electronics hang around at about waist level so I took off my pack and moved them all up to a higher safer place. The creek was very cold but only up to my mid thigh. (that is pretty darn deep though).

It is 8 miles from Laurel Lake back to my car. The last 4 miles from Miguel Meadow to Lake Eleanor are along a very old overgrown road (now a trail). The section along this old road I found to be very interesting and there were also tons of butterflies. Back at Lake Eleanor I found the trail crew still there. Two days later and they still had not started doing any trail work. Maybe they weren’t actually a trail crew after all. They were all hanging out in a circle and blindfolded. I walked right past them and they did not even see me. Is this some kind of training for being a trail crew? or maybe fire fighting? or maybe none of the above? I don’t know. All I know is that the Cottonwood Creek trail at Hetch Hetchy still desperately needs to be cleared. I got back to my car and drove to Pizza Factory in Groveland (of course). It was another beautiful and amazing trip to Yosemite National Park.

 

 

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I left work a bit early on Wednesday afternoon and took off. Back to Yosemite again! I picked up my permit and drove straight to the Lake Eleanor trailhead. It was 6:30pm. My plan was to hike in 3 miles to Frog Creek and camp for my first night. The next day the fun would begin (I hoped).

Surprisingly there were quite a few cars at the trailhead. I was not expecting to see anyone here in the middle of the week. I have been here a few times before and never seen anyone at all.

There were also a large number of cars on the other side of the dam and a whole bunch of people sitting around a campfire. It seemed they were a trail crew getting ready to start out to work the next day. But were they? (come back for part 2)

I passed them by and continued on my journey to Frog Creek arriving just after sunset. I walked straight to the creek to look at it. The weather has been extremely warm and the river flows have jumped up significantly. The Tuolumne River had tripled in flow up to 1670 cfs on 5/19 (and 1780 cfs on 5/20). One last gasp of snow melt before the summer starts. I was 80% sure that Frog Creek would not be crossable and my trip would be a bust (though I did have a Plan B). I took a look at the creek and well … it was flowing strong but it did seem crossable. I think I was going to be ok for my next day after all.

I backtracked to find a place to setup my tent. There was another couple camping here. They had all their stuff spread out and had pretty much taken up three places to camp. I suppose they were not expecting anyone else to show up but still … Anyhow I found a good spot. By now it was dark so I setup my tent and went into bed. In case you are wondering, yes there are frogs here at Frog Creek. I think they were more around the lake than at the creek but I’m sure there were some along the creek as well. I fell asleep to the sound of them again. My wife says she knows what frogs talk about to each other all night long: they talk mostly about what “bugs” them. Sigh.

I got up early, packed up, and quietly walked past the sleeping couple to the creek crossing. It was up to my knees and cold but otherwise not too bad.

You may wonder what I was doing crossing Frog Creek here. There is no trail on the other side of it. My plan was to climb up the Frog Creek canyon all the way to Laurel Lake (and beyond). I have done this before but just to the lower Frog Creek Falls. There is a middle and upper falls as well (the middle falls is pictured here). Frankly, I don’t know how I missed this one before because it is immediately above the lower falls and is a heckuva lot nicer than the lower falls (it is about 40 ft. high).  There was a lot of mist so it was difficult to photograph but I was able to get some shots. I had my breakfast here before continuing up the canyon to the upper falls and then all the way up to Laurel Lake. It took a long time to get to Laurel Lake and I arrived about 2.5 hours later than I had planned. This was not a good thing at all.

Part 2 is coming …

 

 

 

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This is Far Lower Piute Creek Falls, where I camped on my second last night.

My final day! I had to make it back to Hetch Hetchy by about 4:30pm because the gate closes at 5pm. I needed to allow 8 hours for the hike. So my brilliant math calculation told me that 4:30pm minus 8 hours is 6:30am. This the math of a madman. Doh! I’m an idiot. I was up early anyway (I always am) but I could have at least allowed time to have some coffee in the morning.

Anyhow I made very good time through the horrible brushy section and arrived at Smith Meadows in 3 hours. (it took 4 hours on the way up). From here it was 3 hours back to the car. I had forgotten about the horrible brushy section just past Smith Meadows. I guess I had blocked it out of my mind. Well that section took a bit of time to negotiate but finally made it past all the brushiness and then I was home free. All down hill back to the car and on a decent trail. I arrived back at 1PM.

I drove straight to Pizza Factory in Groveland. My usual after backpacking place to stop.

So as for the trip I did not see too much wildlife: just one deer, one big lizard, and two harmless rubber boa snakes. I saw a lot of fresh bear tracks and scat but never did see any of them which was disappointing.

I saw 13 waterfalls including 11 new ones. What does that bring my Yosemite total to? I have now seen 86 out of 161 Yosemite waterfalls or 53%. Hmph. Still a long way to go but I do have some more Yosemite trips I hope to make this spring. All in all it was a 6 day fabulous backpacking trip into the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River.

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