The loop of the Yosemite high country continues from May Lake.

The ritual continues as our workshop group soon learns that we indeed are different from most hikers traveling in the high country. Some of them are doing hikes that include just one high camp, some are doing more than one, others may be doing a loop of all six in one direction or the other. There are backpackers camps as well in the vicinity of the high camps where you encounter hikers as well. All of them will have one thing in common. They are tired and trying to recover the energy for the next days journey and will not appreciate being awaken during the hour before dawn as we climb out of our bunks and scurry for our photo gear in the dark and then set out for our civil twilight-first light morning shoot!

The iconic Yosemite tents are shared and unless we are an even number group, or equal in male/female, we usually find ourselves in with strangers. Or more to the point, strangers in with us! Tired strangers that want and need their sleep. Tired strangers that were friendly enough last night when we all talked about the days adventure and shared hopes and plans for the following day. Strangers that may now, an hour plus before dawn in what is surely low 30 degree temperatures, not be so happy with the reality of a bunch of photographers with headlamps, tripods and packs stampeding out of camp! Most of us are city people and the idea of being in a tent and not a building is lost on some. Doing things as quietly as possible inside is usually quickly learned. It took only one huge guy on my first loop hike rolling over in his bunk (they usually squeak loudly) grabbing his blanket and pulling it angrily over his head for me to get the message. I realized that I would see this guy again at breakfast! The harder one to learn seems to be that after you step outside the tent you need to again remember these are tents and there are other tents with sleeping hikers very close by. Questions of how did you sleep and where’s the shot Steve, at noon o’clock voice are a little slower for some to learn and work into the routine, but most adapt. The fact is that we’ll come back from our AM shoot when most are still in their bunks or waiting outside the mess tent with beverage in hand for breakfast. If we no longer have friendly hikers in camp this is the time you know it. I can only imagine later an angry mob as I pull on the gloves and see my breath while trying to quiet our group in the dark!

On my first loop many years ago at May Lake, standing in such a group of sleepy hungry hikers waiting on the mess tent to sound breakfast, and they all have their different ways of doing this as is traditional, a hiker asked where we were headed today. May Lake was the answer from us. A half smile/smirk came quickly and then a pause. I heard from previous conversations with others that this hiker had a lot of experience so I waited for the pause to end. “That’s a good hike” was all she said. The meaning was clear I thought and was proven later. It was not good in the usual good sense necessarily but GOOD as in strenuous. This encounter is still imprinted in my mind like it was yesterday. The hike from May Lake to Sunrise is both good and Strenuous, the toughest of any!

In any direction you approach Sunrise High Sierra Camp from, that direction is UP!

Leaving May Lake at over 9,200 feet the task for the day is simple. You drop as the trail becomes the old Tioga Road all the way down to Tenaya Lake at 8,120 feet, hike around the lake, then begin the switchbacks and regain the elevation to Sunrise Camp at over 9,400 feet. Piece of cake! It’s usually somewhere on the switchbacks after lunch on the trail, that I now wish for that piece of cake that I forfeited the night before by charging out of the mess tent before desert in hope of images . Anything now for energy or even a short break!

At one of the famous Yosemite trail makers (they are carved metal and very distinctive) at one of the junctions along the route lies an unmarked short trail that leads into a clearing and suddenly provides a thrilling view into Yosemite valley. Always in early afternoon I’ve never been out on Pluto Point when an image other than documentary was the result. No loss. I still show this image to all that plan on joining a future workshop. I’ve found that people that only know Yosemite valley have found this image inspiring as well. So many of the Yosemite Landmarks are visible here from a perspective seldom seen.

In view from Pluto Point from left to right ……  Clouds Rest. The highest peak in view from Yosemite Valley. Half Dome. Washburn and Glacier points. Sentinel Rock and Sentinel Dome. North Dome on the far right in the foreground with just the tip of El Capitain behind. In the middle is Tenaya Canyon and below the green forest of the valley floor.

Don’t miss the earlier posts.

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Next ……… Sunset at Sunrise