Yosemite Hike

June 5-9, 2004

The better photos on this page were taken by Jon Gair with his camera

View up the Merced river canyon	Rattlesnake near Vernal Falls	Vernal Falls	Whitewater at Vernal Falls	Water mist in the air
Dr. Jonathan Gair at Vernal Falls overlook	Ilya with orange hair	Vernal Falls from the side	Rainbow at the bottom	Nevada Falls
View of distant ranges	Games with purple light	Approach to Half Dome	Snow on the peaks	These are the forests primeval...
Cables up to Half Dome	Ilya the waterless	Jon the fearless	View from the top	Jon: now that I made it up here, how do I get down?!
Jon retraces steps	Strange undergrowth	Deer grazing (we saw a black bear nearby earlier)	Bird on ground, a.k.a. meaningless caption	First campsite, just past Half Dome turn-off
Jon the master chef (he really was quite good)	Ilya's back is back on the trail next day (we went off trail in the morning)	Headwaters of Sunrise Creek - probably hardest two hours of the hike	First snow on trail	Alpine meadows would be awesome if they weren't so wet...
Above 9,000 feet, there's lots of snow even in June	Trail ruts are troughs filled with melt-off	Sunrise meadow near Sunrise High Sierra Camp	Descending towards Cathedral Lakes	Another deer strikes a pose
Cathedral Lake with snow terraces in the background	Jon is looking for a dry campsite	That's not an easy task...	Our second campsite will have to be on rock ("Landscape with backpack and gloves")	It takes a long time to pump water with a broken water filter
An out-of-sequence picture of Tenaya Lake?	Ilya on snow	We turn off the JMT at Tuolumne Meadows	Fairview (?) Dome	Lunch break on day 3
You aren't getting any of this yummy sardine sandwich!	It gets colder in the afternoon	Tenaya Lake	Ilya on the shore	See previous caption
This is where we have to ford the Tenaya River: thigh-deep and icy cold	But some tiny stream further ahead has a nice wooden bridge...	Third campsite, fourth morning: tent after snowfall	How do we find the trail?	Jon cooks porridge
Are you ready? I am ready!	Descending towards Snow Creek	Small waterfall in the distance	Natural bridge	Jon is the Colossus straddling the path
Ilya on path to Yosemite Valley via Summit (?) Dome	Pine forest: we've turned back towards Yosemite Falls	Flower meadow above 7,000 feet	Forest becomes less dense as we approach Valley rim	Last lunch spot
First view of Valley in 3 days	Descent from Yosemite point	Half Dome on other side of Valley	Bridge over Yosemite River above Yosemite Falls	River approaching Falls
Section of river just above Upper Yosemite Falls	Whitewater at top of Falls	View from above onto river below Falls	Jon at look-out cage near top of Falls	Water plunges down
Rock face opposite	Jon loses beauty contest with rock face	Upper Yosemite Falls - view from side	This trail down killed my knee	Upper Yosemite Falls - view from bottom
Jon attempts to snap El Capitan as we drive past in dark