Yosemite - 20mile hike

Yosemite National Park (9/19-9/21/01)

Morning of 9/20 - started down towards the valley from the Porcupine Creek trailhead on Tioga Road (8,100 ft).
There were two ways to get down to the valley: via Mirror lake or via Yosemite Falls.
I took the Yosemite Falls route - 8.8 miles from this marker. This marker was 1.5 miles from trailhead on Tioga Rd.

Hiking towards the valley, I saw at least 5 mule deer, several were fawns.
There is one right at the center of this picture (only the hind leg is in sunlight).

This marker shows the distance to North Dome or to Yosemite Falls and Valley (7.8mi).
I am now 3.1 miles from the trailhead off Tioga Rd (Porcupine Creek).

Here is another deer but you can't really see it :( They were bouncing around like goats :)

A beautiful combination of fallen and live trees, a treescape! (Larger picture)

Another beautiful combination of trees. (Larger picture)

The dense forest opens up to views of the mountains surrounding the valley below. (Larger picture)

More open space scattered with young and deceased pines. (Larger picture)

View of the valley below from about 7,000 ft (3,000 ft from the valley).

Yosemite Point - about a mile or so above the Upper Yosemite Falls.
See the valley buildings below. Elevation here is about 7,000 ft (valley elevation is 4,000 ft)

This bridge (at least 50' across) is above the creek that feeds the Upper Yosemite Falls.
At this time of the year, the creek was dry. It is now about 6 miles from the trailhead. (Larger picture)

A beautiful view of trees on the trail contrasted with the immense mountain side in the distance. (Larger picture)

The trail (Yosemite Falls) down is made of cut-stone from the mountains,
it is like uneven concrete steps almost straight down!.

Upper Yosemite Falls is completely dry. Elevation is now about 1,200 ft above the valley.
Distance is now about 8 miles from the trailhead. (Larger picture)

View of valley and Half Dome from Yosemite Falls trail. (Larger picture)

A beautiful snake ("Racer", Coluber constrictor) about 4' long sharing the trails.
This trail is in the Yosemite Valley (4,000 ft), en route to Mirror Lake.
It is now about 12 miles from the Tioga Rd trailhead. (Larger picture)

View of Half Dome while hiking towards Snow Creek trail, up back to trailhead. (Larger picture)

More views of mountains sandwiching the trail.

100-foot tall trees are dwarfed by the huge granite mountain. (Larger picture)

The Half Dome rises over 8,800 ft into the air, and more than 4,000 from Yosemite Valley. (Larger picture)

It took about 2.5 hours to hike a 2.6 mile stretch of Snow Creek trail. The reason - it was straight up, more than 2,800 ft. Most of the time was spent on a stretch of probably less than 1 mile that featured zig-zag trails paved with cut rocks with a 20 to 30% grade up. With the sun beating down, I must've taken 15 breaks, once every 10 minutes or less, just for this stretch! The view was spectacular. It took another 2 hours to hike the final 4.2 miles and the last 1,300 ft up. The sun had set at about 7:30pm; but I didn't get back till 8:15pm. Boy, was I relieved to finally get back to the trailhead! I didn't see anyone on the trails for the last 9.2 miles/5 hours. Definitely will try this hike again but will start much earlier next time :) -p.h.