Leon Turnbull Photography

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.