Leon Turnbull Photography

I did not sleep too well at Harden Lake. It was not because of the frogs. It was not because of the cold either. Everything was frozen in the morning. Ice on my tent. Ice in my water bottle. Frost on the ground. I was not cold in my sleeping bag, however. In fact it did not feel very cold at all but obviously the temperature was down to freezing.

I packed up quickly and hiked down to Upper Morrison Creek Falls (previous post). There was some snow I had to traverse on the way down. It was not icy and I did not need my spikes. (so that is one pound of extra weight I did not need to bring – but who knows, it could have been a lot different and then I would have greatly regretted not bringing them).

Upper Morrison Creek Falls was not as nice a waterfall as I envisioned it being. I thought it would be cleaner and prettier. As I ate my breakfast I wondered how I was going to cross this creek a bit later. The creek was flowing pretty fast. There were some sections that were crossable and some clearly not crossable. What would it be like down where the trail crossed it?

The trail descends 3400 ft. from Harden Lake down to the Tuolumne River. That is 3400 ft. I would have to climb back up at the end of my trip. It is a steep steep descent. Essentially it is straight down and it took a lot longer than I anticipated but at least the Morrison Creek crossing was easy.

Finally I made it down to the Tuolumne River and the famous Pate Valley bridge. This bridge was out for a couple years making the river impossible to cross but the park service made it a high priority to repair it (thankfully). The Tuolumne River was stunning and absolutely massive. It was rushing down into Hetch Hetchy Reservoir at about 910 cfs this day (5/1) and would continue to rise as the temperature climbed upwards during the week and snow melt swelled. My hiking plan was coming to fruition perfectly. (more about this on Day 3)

I rested at the bridge, drinking up as much water as I could manage to take away from the San Franciscans. I am kidding (sort of). From here I still had 4.5 miles to hike and 900 ft. elevation gain to my destination for the night. It is an incredibly beautiful hike along the river. There were very few mosquitoes but the gnats were outrageous. I was expecting a lot more of the mosquito variety and less of the gnat variety. They were not quite as bad as Tehipite Valley but not far behind. Smartly I had my headnet with me on this trip and that saved me (I always bring it with me now). Also there were no bugs at any of my campsite locations (unlike Tehipite) and that by itself made the trip extremely more enjoyable.

I arrived at Register Creek at 4PM, much later than I had hoped. There are a few waterfalls here but by far the prettiest is Lower Register Creek Falls (pictured here). It is a stunning 40 ft. drop immediately above the trail. This is where I would have to cross the creek in the morning if I was to continue up the trail. It was the one and only major creek crossing of my trip. The creek was flowing strong and the crossing looked sketchy and deadly. Would I be able to continue? Well that is something to worry about for tomorrow (Day 3).

For today I would camp here at Register Creek. There is one very small spot to setup my tent here and it was enough for me. It is a very gorgeous location. I enjoyed my evening, took photos of the waterfalls, and fell asleep to the roar of the waterfall.