This post titled Mt. El Sombroso, captured our previous hike at the same place last year. It was the hardest local hike we had tried.
This year we went there again on a cooler day. The added bonus was the sun rays coming through the clouds. It was just a spectacular sunrise. We started hiking very early and were back after a chai break at the top by 1PM. It was still a hard hike even if the weather was better.
Here are some pictures.
Chaifie at the summit
These days I sweat so much that there is a change of clothing at the summit. Find it easier to walk back in fresh clothes!
Now the skies..
If you need a prep hike for any all day hikes in Yosemite, look no further.. this is the best option!
Something tells me we might even do this trail again in a few years!
Last year saw us do both Clouds rest and Half dome hikes in Yosemite. This year we had no plans. Two of our yoga teacher friends wanted to hike with us and also test out the RV they are building. So we made a quick plan to go with them to Upper Yosemite falls. After seeing posts and reports on the hike, they decided to bail out and do a shorter hike instead. In retrospect, they made a wise decision!
We were this close to canceling the hike but decided to make a day trip, thanks to other friends who decided to join us.
Woke up at 3:30 AM to make tea for the trip. There is no hiking without Chai! Started the drive before 5AM and we reached at 8:30 AM. After eating breakfast and drinking chai, we started hiking up at 9. The plan was to make it to the top by at least Noon or 12:30. It ended up being a hot day the sun was over us the entire time. We reached the top only at 1:15.
Most of the folks had a face washing session while I decided to take a dip in the very cold water. It was really refreshing. Also the change of clothes was much needed!
We ate the food that was packed. It was windy and scary but we did go down to the falls head view point using the railing.. (you can see it in the video).
Tried my hand at doing yoga poses before and after lunch. As usual San and friends were scared of me trying to balance on one leg on top of rocks.
San was so happy when we made it to the top. Even she found it hard.
Then we made our way back. Our downhill speeds were different. It is hard to pause on the return. The entire thing is rocky and you have to watch every step. The rocks are all slippery and dangerous. The good thing was it was windy and shaded on the way down. Given we all split up, some guy helped take this photo. Folks came down anywhere from 4:35 to 5:45 depending on their ability to go downhill or take breaks on the way.
There was a beautiful rainbow in the middle of the falls.
After practically hopping and running down without much of a break, all our legs were shaking uncontrollably for a good two hours!
Some more photos..
It was a very challenging hike even compared to Half dome because of the sun! The park service does classify this as a hard hike.
A mile into the hike we get to Columbia rock, a view point where we get to see half dome. it is a great spot to take a break and get some photos of the valley!
We started driving back at 6:30 PM after eating food we had packed and came home at 10:30 PM.
A short video of the hike..
Definitely recommend this as a day hike, ONLY if you have been hiking regularly and can handle a steady climb that keeps going for 3 hours straight. Not recommened for beginners or people who have difficulty coming down rocky terrain.
While we struggled through the hike, we enjoyed the company and had a sense of accomplishment after coming back to the parking lot. The hike is 7 miles from trailhead to top and back , but we walked 10+ miles in total. The elevation gain on this one is 3200 feet in 3 miles. So a steep challenging hike.
One more hike in the Yosemite National park checked out. Next year, we will find another interesting hike to do in YNP!
On hot summer days, (this was again a month and a half ago) when bay area was ready for "karudam weather" as some south Indians call it.. we wanted to hike as a group in the shade.
There were reasons for it. We had made an attempt to go to Mt. Hamilton summit but aborted the attempt as multiple people got dehydrated before we reached the 3 mile mark. Our plan was to leave late afternoon and hike given the trail had no shade. Hindsight being 20/20 this was a bad idea. The last time we had successfully done this was in December in much cooler foggier conditions. So we turned back, drove to the observatory in hopes that we can at least take pictures. The Lick observatory had just closed before we drove up. So we sat near the gate, ate the snacks and tea that would have marked a successful hike and drove back all the way. The few pictures from the failed attempt..
The hikers did want to make up for that by doing another hike right away but in the shade. After some debate on the "most shaded trails" in bay area, we picked this Portola redwoods as none of us had been on this trail before.
Good news? Total shade. Amazing redwoods. Cool throughout when it is reaching 95F outside
Bad news? no views of any kind. No summit. Uniform views throughout.
the only thing changing in the "bench photos" that are now part of every hike.. is the increasing size of my bald spot.. you can literally track it across bench photos.
We did have a lot of fun with the conversation and as an added bonus some of the kids joined us!
This is not an easy trail. Would definitnely ask folks with knee or ankle issues to avoid this!
We did see some interesting things on the way..
Then the ever present redwoods on the trail..
there was a decent flow of water in the creeks, which was an added treat!
A video of the creek and trail.. you can see how serene this place is!
We had a sense of accomplishment after going through this trail to the extent we went. This more than made up for the aborted attempt in Mount Hamilton. Something tells me that we will make another attempt to go around Hamilton in winter.
One more nice set of trails within a 30 minute driving distance!
