Leon Turnbull Photography

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 …