Carefully timing my visit to miss the weekend crowds, I spent the better part of the last week of July (2011) in the Yosemite National Park high country along and around Tioga Pass Road. I posted the first photograph from this visit earlier today, and more will appear here soon. But while the visit is still fresh in my mind, I thought I’d share a few observations and comments that might be useful to others heading there or to other parts of the high Sierra soon.
In a typical late July, all of the snow is melted out at “campground elevations” (generally 8000′ – 9000′ or so – Tuolumne Meadows is at 8600′), essentially all of the usual high country areas are accessible by trail or cross-country travel, wildflowers are at or near their peak, mosquito populations have reached their peak, and visitors are starting to arrive en masse for day use, camping, and backpacking. With the exception of the influx of visitors, this is not quite a typical season, however.
Snow – As I drove up Tioga Pass Road on July 26, the first surprise was finding that there were still large snow patches in some forested areas as low as 8000′ or so. I don’t recall seeing this much snow so low so late in the season in the past. (My memory may not include the lower elevations at this time of year in 1996, the last year with such impressive snow fall.) I stayed at the Porcupine Flat campground, and at least one site there still had enough snow as to make it pretty unusable.
The highest peaks still have very large snow fields. This most certainly can affect back-country travel, depending where you plan to hike. As an example, I day-hiked out the Mono Pass trail to Spillway lake one afternoon. I had a vague plan to hike a mile or so beyond this lake to Lake Helen (?), which sits in a bowl above the lower lake. Once I got to Spillway I changed plans when I saw that a very large snow field was still present along the route that I would have to follow. My general estimate is that if you plan to cross very high terrain that you should assume that areas may be clearing out perhaps three weeks later or so this year.
Water – The stream levels have certainly dropped since my previous visit on June 18-19, the weekend the pass first opened. Now the water levels are down to levels more typical of perhaps early July. This means that streams can be crossed, with the usual cautions about cold rushing water, but that you may have to deal with higher water than what is typical this time of year. On my Mono Pass hike I had to cross a small stream near the start of the route. Where it might be a “rock hop” or a shallow wade in a typical year, this time I had the choice of taking my boots of and wading or else searching out an alternative crossing.
Also, as the snow continues to melt, there are still many very wet places on trails. Along one section of the route to Spillway Lake the trail had literally become a creek for several hundred feet, necessitating a wide detour and some rock-hopping. There are similar conditions along many other trails.
Wildflowers – It is my impression that the flowers are a week or two late this year. For example, while there are some flowers in Tuolumne Meadows, at this point it seems like the peak is still at least a week away. Because of the late melting of the snowpack, it seems to me that the wildflowers are playing catch-up. I suspect that the first few weeks of August may bring the peak, and that the wet conditions may keep the show going a bit longer than usual this year.
Mosquitos – The mosquitos didn’t seem all that bad for late July when I arrived in the park on July 26… but that changed quickly as the week wore on! On my first evening I did a hike that started at around 10,000′ and reached a few hundred feet higher. I did encounter some mosquitos around the lake that was my destination, but not the unforgiving blood-sucking hordes that will drive me off the mountain. That didn’t happen until the next evening!
On day two I did another evening hike, this one at a lower elevation and through lodgepole pine forest. As I left my car I haphazardly put on a light layer of bug repellant, thinking that they wouldn’t be too bad after the previous evening’s experience. Boy was I wrong! The mosquitos here almost drove me nuts before I made it back to my car. Overall, my feeling is that if you go up there during the next few weeks… you should be prepared to suffer mosquitos!
Park visitors – Yosemite is, of course, a hugely popular destination, and late-July through most of August are the peak times in the high country. However, it seemed to me that there were even more people along Tioga Pass road than usual this time. As one indication, I can usually manage to get a camp site at Tuolumne on weekdays without a reservation if I get my name on the daily waiting list. I got my name on the list this past Tuesday… but they didn’t have enough spaces. I ended up at Porcupine Flat instead, and even that campground filled every day.