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Dick's
Adventures of 2016 - Part 4 |
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Adventures
of 2016 Part 1
Adventures of 2016 Part 2
Adventures of 2016
Part 3
Adventures of 2016
Part 5 Adventures
of 2016 Part 6
Adventures
of 2016 Part 7
Yosemite
Waterfall Tour
Kings Canyon Campout
Father's
Day at Courtright
Tokopah Falls Trail |
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Yosemite
Waterfall Tour
Once again I had a fun
outing with my older daughter Teri and her grandsons (my great
grandsons) Colton and Jack. We went to Yosemite
for the day on June
3, hoping to get a little jump on the crowds that arrive once school
is out. I don't know what the crowds will be like when that happens, but
there were certainly more than enough people all over the valley.
Cars were parked along the roads everywhere there was room, although
we managed to find a spot at the places we stopped.
Colton had been to
Yosemite a few weeks earlier, and he was very enthusiastic about
waterfalls, especially the part where the mist gets you all wet.
With the peak runoff nearing an end we wanted to see a few of the
falls, all flowing better than they have for several years.
Teri and the boys arrived
at my house a little before 8, allowing enough time for them to
scatter my "decorative" bowl of marbles all over the
floor, one of their favorite games here. Teri had to make a phone
call at 8, and once that was completed, the marbles were picked up
and we were on our way.
The trip went smoothly
with a rest stop at the park entrance station, where the boys were given
a snack. If you've never traveled with young children, the number
one rule is, always have food ready. We continued through the park,
including one of Colton's favorite places, the Wawona
Tunnel, at 4,233 feet the longest in California. It was drilled
through solid bedrock in 1933. When you exit on the east end, you
are presented with the iconic
view of Yosemite Valley, featuring El Capitan, Half Dome, and
Bridalveil Falls.
Our first stop was at
Bridalveil, which drops 620 feet and offers a variety of different
looks through the seasons. At peak runoff the wind blows spray from
the fall all the way to the parking lot, and there is water running
down the trail that goes to the base of the falls. The closer you get, the
wetter you get. In late August the flow is reduced to not much more
than a trickle, and the winds blow the falls far to both sides,
giving the impression of a bride's veil waving in the breeze.
The snow melt has
apparently diminished quite a bit in the last week or two. When Teri
was there with Colton a few weeks ago, they got thoroughly wet, but
this time no spray reached the parking lot, and in fact, there was
very little mist until we reached the end of the trail. At this
point, you could get soaked if you lingered very long. After a
couple of minutes the boys were
getting chilled so we went back down the trail, and across two
bridges that cross the creek, which divides into two channels below
the falls.
Jack enjoyed his first
waterfall experience as much as Colton had, although both of them
also liked the bridges, and perhaps enjoyed climbing on rocks even
more.
From the trail to the
base of Bridalveil, and also along the road we followed when we left
there, we had a view of Ribbon
Falls. This is one of the highest in
the park, but it is highly dependant on snow melt, and pretty much
disappears by late June. There were other temporary or seasonal
falls, including one that came down the cliffs on the south side
of the valley in a series of cascades.
When we finished our
activities at Bridalveil the boys were ready for lunch, and Teri and
I were in agreement, so we searched for a picnic site that her son
Johnny had told her about. We found it, but so did many others, with
all the picnic tables occupied when we arrived. We were resigned to
using a large log when one party left, and we quickly grabbed the
table.
Teri had brought lunch
meat, crackers, cheese, and grapes, and everyone enjoyed a mix of
whichever items they preferred. Also Cheerios which both boys love.
During our lunch we were entertained by a couple of crows who were
looking for goodies around the various tables, and had no fear
whatsoever of people. At one point they both suddenly flew down from
a tree just a few feet from Colton and Jack, to their great delight.
Our picnic site was a
short distance from the Merced River, in a place where it was wide
and smooth, so after lunch Teri and the boys waded in the edge of
the water. Although the water was in the sun, its history as
recently-melted snow was obvious when you stepped in more than a few
inches, and the kids made no attempt to go out past the first few
feet.
I had never been to this
exact spot in Yosemite Valley before, and was intrigued to discover
that it offered a dramatic view of El
Capitan, giving the impression
that you were almost standing right under the bulging top of the
massive granite outcropping.
The river had been up
several feet higher not long before, so the area next to the water
was nice and muddy. This proved to be an excellent place for writing
with a stick, although both boys soon abandoned tools and just dug
into the mud with their
hands. Colton understood the concept of
rinsing his hands in the river, but when we told Jack to clean his
hands, he opted for something much handier, the front of his shirt.
These activities
continued until both boys were fairly wet and muddy, but of course,
Grandma knows about these things and had brought along extra
clothing. Once they got changed, we loaded up and started for home,
but not directly. The main road there was part of the one-way loop
that goes east into the valley on the south side, so we drove in
that direction, and stopped at a parking area where we had a nice
view of the upper Yosemite
Falls. Although it was flowing very full,
there was enough of a wind near the base that the water was
sometimes blown completely off to one side of the stained area of
the rock that marks its normal drop.
Colton was looking
forward to another trip through the tunnel, and struggled to stay
awake that long, but Jack was out before we started up the hill out
of the valley. Colton was still wide awake and enjoyed his second
pass through the tunnel.
Heading away from the
valley, we stopped at a vista point just past the tunnel where you
can see Half Dome and El Capitan, as well as the highway that goes
up the north side of the canyon and out to Tioga Pass. There are
three small tunnels on this road, which Colton had traveled in the
past, so he enjoyed watching cars across the canyon disappear into
one of the tunnels then emerge from the other end. We also had a
nice view of Cascade Falls along this route. This falls
races down
the mountain side west of the valley itself, making a series of
drops both above and below the road across the way. The last part of
the falls is the longest and straightest, and is also the first
waterfall to greet visitors as they drive into Yosemite on Highway
140 from Mariposa.
We enjoyed the view and
took some pictures, then got started for home. Colton was asleep
within a mile, and both boys slept all the way to my house. Teri was
having them overnight, so was glad that they would be rested for the
evening's activities. Having got up at 6:30, and missed my nap, I
also slept for a few miles myself.
We both agreed that the
crowds this early mean that our visits to Yosemite are over until
next fall, other than the possibility of some hiking away from the valley.
Teri had been there at least five times since the start of the year,
and both of us are looking forward to a trip to the less crowded
Kings Canyon National Park in about a week.
--Dick Estel, June 2016
Yosemite
Waterfall Pictures
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Kings Canyon Campout
To
call a trip a "campout" gives the impression of lounging
beside the campfire, sipping a drink and reading (at least in my
vision). When it's a trip with my daughter Teri, plan on more hiking
and less lounging.
Of
course, we do include lounging and reading, but we earn the right to
goof off after days with multiple hikes. Also well-earned are the
evening meals. My solo camp cooking usually consists of re-heating
leftover pizza and maybe making a grilled cheese sandwich. With Teri
in charge of cooking, we had chicken tacos, arroz con pollo, and
other goodies, including a grilled cheese sandwich, but with better
side dishes than I would have had on my own. Teri
and I had both wanted to make a trip to Cedar
Grove in Kings
Canyon National Park, and in fact Teri had made a couple of day trips there
earlier this year. For our camping trip, she took her motor home up
on June 8, while I drove up in my Honda the next day after a morning meeting. I
made quite a few stops along the way, to look at stuff and take
pictures. My first stop was along the road past Grant
Grove, where
there is a view of the Converse
Basin to the west. This was the site of the
McGee Fire in 1955, which is described on a sign at a turnout.
Although what I saw was indeed a scene of destruction from a forest fire, this
event was much more recent - the Rough Fire of last summer (2015).
After the previous fire, many pines had grown up starting a good recovery, and now they were
burned out once again. Beyond
this area a few miles there's a road up to a helipad, with a view
down the Kings River Canyon. The devastation from the Rough Fire was
even more pronounced at this location The burned hillsides were
covered with grass and flowers, but it will
be a long time before the evergreen forest recovers. In
the burned areas, heavy rains this winter have contributed to a good floral
display at this 6,000 foot altitude, and I saw Mariposa Lilies,
climbing brodiaea, blazing
star, and several other species. I
made a couple of other stops as the road continued down into the
river canyon. At one point there is a great view of the confluence
of the middle and south forks of the river, and I could see at that
time that the river was running high. When the road dropped down to
the river level, I found myself driving beside miles of white water,
crashing over boulders, throwing up spray, and in general wondering
why anyone needed a sign to warn them to stay out of
the river. My
final stop before reaching camp was Grizzly
Falls, which drops 75 feet into
the river canyon from the north side about two miles before the road
enters the Cedar Grove section of the national park. I have stopped
at this falls several times in the past, but I have never seen it
flowing as big as it was this time. This location was to provide more
interest and drama later during my trip. There
is no cell phone service in the canyon, so I could not call to find
out where Teri was camped. She had hoped to get into Sheep Creek
Campground, which is near the river and the first one as you enter
Cedar Grove. I saw that it was closed, so I kept on driving, but
every campground I saw was closed. I finally wound up at the end of
the road, six miles up the canyon, where there is a back country
permit station. I asked the ranger on duty about campgrounds, and he
said the only one open was Sentinel, next to the village, six miles back down
the road. I drove back,
and there was no sign on the main road indicating the existence of a
campground, but a short distance down the village road I saw the
campground on the left. I drove around most of the roads in the camp
before spotting Teri's motor home, but finally made my
arrival. We spent the
afternoon resting, reading, and talking about what hiking we wanted
to do. Our general plan was to do a longer hike early in the day, and an
"evening stroll" after supper. For the first such of
these, we drove up the road to where the Roaring River comes in from
the south. There are no really big waterfalls like in Yosemite, and
the streams that enter the canyon here usually drop down in a series of
cascades, with short waterfalls in some places. The Roaring River
ends its run with a drop of about 20 feet into a big pool, then
tumbles down another half mile or so to the Kings River. There is a
short trail from the road to the base of the falls, and we've been
there a number of times. Like other streams and falls throughout the
Sierra, the Roaring
River Falls was running bigger than I've ever
seen it, and it was an enjoyable short hike to end the day. Across
the stream from the trail's end, there is another viewing platform,
about 20 feet higher on the opposite cliff. I had been there, but
Teri had not, so we walked from the parking area across the bridge
and down to the trail that goes up on the west side. It was a
steeper dirt trail, and Teri was in sandals, so we decided to save
that walk for another day and returned to camp. Before
moving on to the next day, let me pause in telling about WHAT we did
and spend some time on WHERE we did it - the lay of the land, the
topography, the physical conditions in the areas in which we
traveled. When you leave
the San Joaquin Valley on State Route 180, it is a 55 mile drive from 500 feet in elevation to the 6,000 foot level just past the
entrance to Kings Canyon National Park. While the park is a large
continuous section of land, most of it is back-country wilderness.
The two sections accessible by road are separated by a stretch of
territory that is part of the Sequoia National Forest. The
road enters the park and soon divides, with the southern route going
to Sequoia National Park. The northern route goes into the Grant
Grove area, location of the huge General Grant Tree, as well
as a lodge, stores, campgrounds, and hiking trails of varying difficulty. The
road exits the park about two miles past Grant Grove, going past the
road to Hume Lake,
a man-made reservoir originally used in logging operations, but now
serving as a popular recreation area with camping, fishing, and a
Christian camp. On the opposite side of Highway 180, dirt roads lead
into the Converse Basin and a trail to the Boole
Tree, virtually the only large tree not cut down during logging
operations at the end of the 19th Century. From there
the highway begins its descent into the canyon of the Kings River. This
is considered the deepest canyon in North America, with a drop of
8,200 feet from the top of Spanish Mountain on the north side of the
canyon down to the main stem of the river below. Near this point the
South and Middle Forks of the Kings come together, and the road
continues down to the South Fork, then runs along the river to the
end of the road in Cedar Grove. There is no road access to the
Middle Fork, but it's well worth the hike for those having the
ability to backpack for several days, which I
did once. Where you
re-enter the national park at Cedar Grove, the narrow
canyon widens out to a glacier carved valley similar to Yosemite,
but with a number of differences. The cliffs are not as steep, so
most streams entering the valley do not have true waterfalls, except
as noted in my report. When the last glaciers melted, a dam of rocks
and dirt was left across the lower end of Yosemite Valley, forming a
lake. Over the centuries sediment from the Merced River filled the
lake, creating today's broad,
level valley floor. In Kings Canyon there was no such lake, so the
canyon bottom is steeper and less level. From the upper end of the road at Cedar
Grove the river
drops steeply with continuous cascades and white water. There are few wide, still pond-like areas
as are found in Yosemite. The more southern latitude also makes for
a drier climate, resulting in more shrubs and fewer large
evergreens. The lower end
of the valley is the section known as Cedar Grove, and ponderosa
pines and cedars are the dominant trees, along with black
oaks.
Farther up the canyon, especially on the southeast side at Zumwalt
Meadows is a wetter climate with more big trees and moisture loving
plants. Many trails lead
out of the valley, and all but one of them rise steeply in a series
of switchbacks for the first few miles. They all lead into designated
wilderness areas, and permits are required for overnight hiking.
The one "easy" trail follows the river east from the end
of the road, and is relatively level for the first two miles. Then
it separates into several different routes, all of which head up
with varying degrees of steepness. Teri
and I discussed various hiking possibilities for Friday, and finally
decided on several short or moderate hikes. We wanted to walk up the
west side of the Roaring River to the vista point we had observed on that
side the night before. We had also noticed a short trail to Knapp's
Cabin, built in the 1920s as a storage shed for fishing and
camping expeditions conducted by George Knapp, a wealthy Santa
Barbara businessman. It's the oldest building in the canyon, and
still in good shape after over 90 years. This was our first stop,
and at the start of the trail
we found a fascinating plant, as high as our heads with many purple
trumpet shaped flowers along the top 12 inches. Later we learned
that this is called fireweed. The walk to the
cabin is very short, and offers a view of the valley from the top of
a glacial
moraine where George chose to build the structure. Our
next stop was at the Roaring River bridge, where a rough dirt trail
led up to a viewing platform with safety railings, offering a
different angle on the falls. I had been there 20 or 30 years
earlier, but Teri did not know it was there, despite many visits to
the area, so it was new for her and almost new for me. When
I drove up to the end of the road Thursday I noticed a good size
creek tumbling down from the north along the way, so we pulled off
the road near the creek and walked to the highway bridge to take a
look on both sides. Just as we were about to head back to the car,
Teri noticed a foot bridge across the creek a hundred feet or so
upstream. We found a route, not really a trail, but where people
like us had worn a faint path up the hill in that direction. As we
approached the bridge we found ourselves on a "real"
man-made trail, which led to and across the bridge. After
enjoying what we later identified as Granite Creek and taking some
photos we continued west on the trail, hoping it would lead back
down to the road. Soon we realized this was the north side trail
that runs all the way from Road's End down to Cedar Grove Village,
so we cut across to the road by another faint path and continued our
drive up the canyon. Our
big hike of the day was the Zumwalt
Meadow Loop. I had walked on the first part of this trail in
about 1968, and somewhere I have photos of Teri and her sister
Jennifer playing in the river when they were about two and four.
However, I had never hiked the entire loop, so Teri was my guide on
this route, which she walked with her mother and Jennifer earlier
this year. From the
parking lot it's a few hundred yards to the river, which is crossed
on a large suspension
bridge. Just past the bridge you can take a
short walk to the left and be at the meadow, or go right and
complete the full loop, which was our choice. This trail
goes through the jumbled boulders at the base of the cliffs, and has
warnings about unstable footing. With our poles and our regular
hiking experience we did not experience anything unstable, but it
was easy to see how people who go on trails like this in sandals or
flip-flops would find it daunting. We have a name for these
people, but are much too polite to express it in public. The
trail eventually comes out of the rocks to the river, and runs
between it and the
meadow. As we walked along the river, we could
see that the water had been three feet higher not long before. Near
where the loop ends and you come back to the bridge, the trail is
actually a boardwalk across the edge of the meadow, with a nice
viewing platform with benches. While resting here we had a pleasant
conversation with a couple from Michigan who were in the process of
moving to Berkeley, visiting parks and other places on their way.
They had originally come from Israel about 50 years earlier. When
we got back to the trailhead, we drove on to the end of the road,
where Teri got some information at the permit booth. Near the booth
was a sign at the start of the Bubbs Creek Trail that goes east
along the river, and then joins other trails into the back country,
including the Rae
Lakes Loop,
Paradise Valley, and access to the John Muir Trail. We also took a
look at the sign at the nearby Copper Creek trailhead. This was the
trail I came down in
1982 when I hiked from Lake Wishon on the North Fork, through
the valley of the Middle Fork, and over the Monarch Divide to Road's
End and the South Fork. Like every other trailhead sign except the
one along the river, it announced that the trail would ascend
steeply in a series of switchbacks for the first few miles. Just
looking at this information made me tired, and anyway, our hiking
was over for the day. We enjoyed a good dinner, and after cleaning
up and reading a little we took our evening stroll to the Hotel
Creek Trailhead. We were not sure exactly where this was, but knew
it went up the north side of the canyon near the village. It was
about a quarter mile from our camp to the ranger station, so we went
in that direction, then took the road that led to the pack station,
reasoning that this facility would be located on the outskirts of
"civilization." We
had a nice walk, down across the river, then uphill to the
trailhead, which was right where we suspected it was, at the
junction of the road to the pack station and a road that runs on the
north side of the canyon. We learned that the trail goes up
1,500 feet in 2.4 miles, a task I would no longer try. On our way
back, we stopped at the village store and indulged in ice cream
bars, then finished our 1.34 mile walk and wound things down for the
night. Our
plan for the final day was to hike up the Don
Cecil Trail at least as far as Sheep Creek Falls. Teri had gone
up this trail on Wednesday a little bit past the falls, a four mile round trip. The distance from our camp to the creek crossing was
just over a mile, so I knew an up and back hike would be within my
abilities, despite the steep ascent. In 1981 I had hiked
up this trail, then east along the upper side of the canyon,
across the upper Roaring River, and back down along Sphinx
Creek to the parking area at Road's End. The
falls is a short
drop, with cascades above and below, but the creek
is running full and drops down through a canyon filled with greenery and
lined by "stacks" of granite slabs on the west side. A
large family group arrived about the same time we did, including
about five kids. It was clear that most were enjoying the hike but
at least one was not. We
spent some time there, then continued a little farther, enjoying a
stretch of trail lined with wildflowers of various kinds. The most
interesting was one I had seen earlier at Grizzly Falls. From a
round, fuzzy green ball formation at the top of the stem, it puts
out maybe two dozen star-shaped flowers, some white and some pale
orange. Research indicates that this is known as
Grand
Collomia, Large-flower Mountain Trumpet or
Large-flowered Collomia. The
most common flowers along the trail were the small white blossoms of
bear clover, a low shrub found at medium elevations throughout the
Sierra. We
reached a good turnaround point (meaning I was ready to turn
around), and enjoyed a snack near the falls. As we made our way back down,
we enjoyed the
views across the canyon, as well as observing different types of vegetation at different
elevations. Our total round trip hike was 2.73 miles. We
loafed around, read, ate, and then goofed off, and did two more
outings. With the motor home, Teri had not wanted to stop at the
small Grizzly Falls parking lot, so we drove down there in my Honda
and enjoyed another look at this small but very impressive fall.
While we were there we heard that some people had climbed up the
cliffs beside the falls and were in trouble. There were rangers at
the parking lot, and apparently some US Forest Service personnel up
on the cliffs. An ambulance arrived just as we were leaving, but
we heard nothing more about it. On
our way back to camp we stopped to check out one last trailhead,
Lewis Creek, right at the western boundary of the park. The fire
went through this area, and as we walked up the trail a short
distance, we immediately came to a dead tree that had fallen across
the trail. A while after
we got back to camp, we did our evening stroll. When Teri arrived,
the Sheep Creek Campground was closed due to a project to remove
hazardous dead trees, but it had been opened Saturday morning. We
followed a paved path that runs between the two campgrounds,
crossing several creeks on the way. We later determined that Sheep
Creek crosses the main road, then splits into several branches
before flowing into the river, meaning all the creeks we crossed
were part of Sheep Creek. As
we walked through the campground, we saw the results of the tree
cutting project. Piles and piles of branches had been cut up into
firewood length and left all over the camp, so that campers would
only have to walk a few feet to gather wood. We speculated that most
of it would be gone by the Fourth of July. We
walked around several of the loops, noting that the campground was
sparsely occupied compared to Sentinel where we were, which was to
be expected since Sentinel was the only choice until that morning.
We walked up to the main road and made our way back to our camp as
dusk fell, having added another 1.34 miles to our hiking efforts.
Including a couple of short walks near the camp, we hiked nearly
10.5 miles for the three days, and I added another 1.17 on my own as
I drove home (more about that below). In
addition to loafing and reading, we enjoyed observing some of things
gong on around us in camp. The rules listed at the entrance
include "no skateboards or scooters." There were two young
girls, four and seven, safely riding their scooters down a gentle
slope on the road, so we dubbed them "the scooter
hoodlums." It appeared that the rangers on duty agreed with our
view that the rule was silly, since they did not bother the riders
in any way. They did,
however, bother a group that brazenly violated the rule about
keeping food put away to discourage bears. This is not a difficult
task, since every campsite has strong metal bins, large enough to
hold several big ice chests, and designed with a latch that bears
can't operate (although I suspect they are working on it). The
people at a camp near us had driven off and left an ice chest and
other items sitting out. The signs say food left out will be
confiscated, and two rangers who came to their camp did exactly
that. Later that evening the rangers were there talking with the
people, no doubt giving them a gentle lecture. Naturally
we also observed some wildlife. Most common were the Steller's
Jays that arrived in camp on a regular basis to look for crumbs.
There was also a little chipmunk who scurried across the ground
between trees every so often. On
her first day in camp, Teri saw a bear across the road from the
campground, and five deer wandered through the camp in the early
morning at least twice. Teri saw them Thursday morning, and we both
saw them Saturday. On my way home I pulled over at the Yucca
Point trailhead and was reading the sign saying the trail is
closed due to damage from the fires. I saw movement ahead and looked
up to see a bear gallop across the road about 100 feet from me. This
was only the second time I had ever seen a bear outside national
park boundaries. I saw one more deer near my final stop of the
trip. We had great weather
throughout our trip, with a forecast of storms the last day. A few
drops fell while we were eating breakfast that day, and we had drops
off and on throughout the day, never enough to get us wet. During
the night there were two pretty good storms, with loud thunder and
frequent flashes of lightning. Teri
had to be at a meeting early in the day on Sunday, and needed to
leave before 7 a.m., so we got up way too early, had a simple,
non-cooked breakfast, and departed. I did NOT have to go to a
meeting, so I planned to make several stops on the way out of the
park. As I approached Grizzly Falls I noticed a car following too
close, so I pulled into the parking lot to let it pass. Then I
decided to use the restroom while I was there. I looked up toward
the falls to see the white water through the trees, but it did not
look right. I walked up to the falls and discovered that it had
turned brown! The area above the falls was part of the Rough Fire,
and the storms of Saturday night had obviously washed soil into the
stream, creating a very unusual sight. Where
the road first offers a view of the river canyon downstream there is
a wide dirt pullout, and a locked gate across a road that leads up
to a heliport. I stopped there again, and this time walked part way
up the road, getting a good view of mist over the
canyon, as well as
enjoying some more wildflowers. My
final stop and hike was the Panoramic Point Trail. A narrow paved
road goes through Grant Grove Village, then up the ridge about two
miles to this trail. Along this road is where I saw one last deer.
The walk is very short, just over a half mile round trip, and the
trail is divided into two parts, one of them accessible to wheel
chairs. The view at the top is well worth whatever effort it takes,
with the entire backcountry of the park spread out before you. With
lingering haze and clouds, the right side of the view above the
South Fork was obscured, but it was fairly clear up the Middle
Fork,
and some of the mist lifted before I started back down.
Once I got back to my
car, it was mostly a non-stop trip back home, leaving the cool
weather of the higher elevations and dropping back into the hot and
somewhat hazy air of the San Joaquin Valley. I immediately started
planning more trips into the mountains.
--Dick Estel, June 2016
Kings
Canyon Photos |
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Father's
Day at Courtright
For the second year in a
row, I enjoyed a Father's Day hike with both my
daughters, Teri and
Jennifer. As an added bonus, we were joined this year by Teri's son
Mikie, and Wes Thiessen, who served as my adopted son for the day.
Our destination was
Courtright Reservoir, at the 8,000 foot level in the Sierra National
Forest, a distance of about 75 miles from home. The Ramblers hiked there last
year, and all of us had camped or hiked in the area at least
once.
Teri and Mikie left about
6 a.m. on June 19 so Mikie could do some fishing before the start of
the hike. Wes and Jennifer arrived at my house a little after 8
a.m., and piled into Wes's Toyota Highlander, arriving at the lake
about 10:30.
Teri was parked by the
road near the dam, so we collected Mikie, who had left all the fish
in the lake just as he found them, and drove the short distance to
the trailhead. The hike starts out with a modest downhill stretch,
then is level nearly all the way. Part of the way the route doubles
as a four-wheel drive road, the southern end of the very challenging
Dusy-Ershim
Trail, but we never got close to the challenging part.
To underline the
challenging part, here's a quote from the trail's web page: "Recommended equipment: Full size and long wheel base vehicles are not recommended. A lifted, locked short wheel base vehicle with skid plates, rocker guards, and tow hooks and straps are a must. It is highly recommended that someone in your group have a winch. The less the vehicle is equipped the more work and damage you can expect. Bring extra gas and spare parts. Remember help for your vehicle and medical attention are hours or even days away."
All in all, I kind of
think it's easier to walk this trail than to drive it. Eventually
the foot trail forks off to the right from the road, in a generally
north-northeast direction, crossing a swampy area on a log boardwalk
that offers its own challenges. The rounded logs are a bit weird to
walk on, and they have rotted away in spots, leaving small holes to
trip the unwary. We were wary, and made it safely through this part.
The trail runs through a
small, glacier-carved valley, similar to Yosemite but on a much
smaller scale. There are no high cliffs, but there are dramatic
granite domes visible all along the first mile of the trail on both
sides. At this one-mile point, there is a huge, gently sloping granite
slab, very easy to walk up on. It's probably 100 yards wide
across the slope, and a quarter mile long. There are boulders large
and small scattered across this area, carried along by the glacier,
and left behind when it melted. In some parts it resembles a giant
marble game.
Although this was our
destination, and the place that the Ramblers stopped last year, we
decided to continue on the trail for a ways to see what was there. I
had backpacked on this trail at least twice in the 1980s, but did not
remember any details. Where we walked, the trail veered slightly
more to the east, and soon ran across a meadow with a small stream
running through and across the trail.
From this point the trail
began a gentle climb through an evergreen forest. We did not go much
farther, but this trail is one of the main access routes to the high
Sierra back country. Branches of the trail will lead you to Hell
for Sure Pass, the Leconte
Divide area, Goddard
Canyon, and the John Muir
Trail.
Early in the hike we were
walking near a lively creek, but the trail moved away from it when
we crossed the boardwalk. During the final part of the walk, we
heard this stream again off to our right, so we all walked off the
trail to enjoy the
sight.
At this point we turned
back, but when we reached the giant granite slab we cut through the
trees and walked up on the rock. Here we rested, had a snack of
Teri's famous home-made energy bars, took
photos, and enjoyed the
incredible views of Maxson Dome and other natural features.
Besides the views and the
boulders, there is another interesting aspect of this spot, large
areas of glacial
polish, which is a place where the rocks and
soil carried by the glacier ground the rough granite to a smooth,
shiny surface.
I mentioned that everyone
had been to this place before, but our experiences vary widely. I
hiked here for the first time with friends from work in the late
1960s as described in my backpacking and day
hike report. I also backpacked here a couple of times, most
notably with two
young friends, one of whom later became Teri's husband. Tim and Teri,
their sons, sons' friends, and sometimes her father (me) drove back
the 4-wheel drive road and camped near the lake a number of times,
which accounts for Mikie's previous visits. Wes hiked with the
Ramblers last year, but Jennifer's visit here was so long ago she
does not remember it. With my ex-wife and both daughters, we walked
in as far as the granite slab when the girls were probably about
four and six.
No matter what our
previous experience, we all enjoyed the trip, and appreciated the
fantastic scenery. Although the domes and the granite slab along the
trail are great, the most dramatic view is when you first arrive at
the lake and see the blue water with a
row of domes on one side, and the unique form of Maxson Dome at
the far end.
Instead of returning to
the trail at the base of the granite, we walked up and across to the
4-wheel drive trail. Where it crosses the slab it's marked by a
series of reflector dots, but in the past drivers had to rely on the
guidance of rock
cairns, which are subject to being knocked over by weather,
humans and animals.
It's only a short
distance across the rock until the road goes into the forest and
through some spots where it's hard to see how ANY vehicle could
pass. We ended our hike with the only real uphill walking, about 200
yards back up the hill to the parking lot, where we enjoyed a brief rest
and changed out of our boots. Throughout the hike we had a nice
breeze, with temperatures probably around 70 degrees, warm during
the uphill sections, but otherwise extremely comfortable.
We drove back to the lake
for lunch. In honor of Father's Day, Teri, Jennifer and Wes had
brought stuff to make sandwiches, veggies and fruit, and some
amazing chocolate cookies. Teri set up a card table with a view of
the lake, and we enjoyed a well-earned meal.
On our drive home, Wes,
Jennifer and I made one final stop, to get a look at a waterfall on
Bear Creek that comes down from the hills above the road. The best
view was from the middle of the road in a place where we could not
stop, but we did get a good look at the lower section of the falls
from the bridge.
I would like to end this
report with a BIG thank you to my daughters for arranging this hike,
to my son of the day Wes for driving, and to Mikie, who has been one
of my faithful travel companions since he was barely able to walk.
--Dick Estel, June 2016
Courtright
Hike Photos |
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Tokopah
Falls Trail
This
hike on July 6 was supposed to be the Big
Baldy Trail in Sequoia National Forest,
but for the third time in our history of hiking together, my daughter and I were
forced to change our plans due to a fire. In
this case it was a prescribed burn (we used to call them control
burns) in the canyon below the Generals
Highway, in the area of Redwood
Mountain. When we got out of the car at the Big Baldy trailhead, the smell of smoke
was strong, and we agreed we did not want to breath that while we
hiked uphill for two miles. Our
first thought was to go on to the Tokopah
Falls Trail at Lodgepole,
but on the way we stopped to check out two other possibilities. The
first was at Dorst Creek Campground, where a trail goes about two
miles to the Muir Grove redwoods. A little farther on was the
trailhead to Little
Baldy. Both of these were smoke-free and both
sounded good, so we added them to our wish list, and stayed with our
first alternate. Lodgepole
is a large campground in Sequoia National Park. All the campsites
were taken, but there were still a few
parking spaces for the trailhead. The trail starts at the upper end
of the campground and immediately crosses the Marble Fork of the Kaweah
River,
heading east into the Tokopah Valley on the north side of the
stream. There are campsites along the river on the opposite side for
about the first half mile, then you are in undeveloped forest. The
trail climbs gradually, gaining 800 feet, but there are only a
couple of very short places where it is actually steep. The last
half mile or so goes through a maze of large granite boulders, a good place to
have hiking poles, but not really difficult. There
are a number of bridges in one place, where small creeks cross the
trail, but only three of these had water at this time. Teri made
this hike early in the spring, and the river was all white water and
there was water running across the trail in many places. This time
people were playing in the river by the campground, something that
could have been fatal during her earlier hike. There
are a lot of flowers along the way, the most common being yellow-throated
gilia, a half-inch pink flower with a yellow center. There were also some
very spectacular examples of Kelley's
Lily that we first saw last year on the
Ramblers' Courtright hike, and shortly after that below Kaiser Pass.
I didn't know what it was at the time, but was later able to identify
it. This flower seems to
be fairly rare, usually growing adjacent to running water. Although
this route is in Sequoia National Park, there are no redwoods in
this area. Instead the attraction is the trail
itself, and a fairly
big waterfall at trail's end. The falls does not drop down a cliff,
but instead is really a long, steep cascade, ending in a sharper
drop where there is plenty of room to rest and enjoy the
surroundings. There
were dozens of people on the trail, including a large number of kids,
many age six or under, most of whom were handling the trail with no
problem. One boy would fall behind, looking at rocks and stuff, then
run uphill to catch up. This made ME tired. Despite the numbers, the
viewing area and the accessible rocks above and below had places
where everyone could sit and rest, enjoy the falls, and have
something to eat. Usually
Teri brings snacks for the trail, and we eat lunch when we get back to the
car. On this hike, despite having a good breakfast, I was feeling
pretty hungry before we got to the falls, so I was delighted to find
that she had brought our full lunch. A
good refueling was necessary, since the hike was longer than
expected. The trail sign gives the one-way mileage as 1.7, so a 3.4
round-trip hike seemed just about right. In fact, my GPS hiking app,
which has been shown to be accurate over known distances, gave our
total walk as 4.46 miles, not exactly "too much," but
definitely a good workout. While
walking up the trail we spotted a marmot just as he disappeared into the
bushes. At the falls, there were at least two of them who would
come out of the rocks, check out the people, go back out of sight,
then repeat.
From the campground, the
terrain ahead looks like mountain forest, but as you walk up the
trail, and of course, back out, you realize it's a glacier-carved
valley, one of many "little Yosemite's" as Francois
Matthes described
them. The rock cliffs to the north are not in view till you get
close to the falls, but then they present some striking views of fractured
granite. On the south side, the dominant feature is known as the
Watchtower.
It looks like a fairly ordinary rocky mountain top till you get near
the falls, then it too appears in all its dramatic glory.
We spent quite a bit of
time at the falls, resting and eating lunch, then started back. As
usual, there are things
seen on the outward journey that didn't catch the eye walking
in, a good argument for hiking both ways.
--Dick Estel, July 2016
Tokopah
Falls Photos |
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Photos
(Click to enlarge; pictures open in new window) |
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Yosemite
Waterfall Tour Cedar Grove
Courtright Hike
Photos Tokopah
Falls Trail |
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Yosemite
Waterfall Tour |
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Jack Snack on the road |
Bridalveil Falls at
its beautiful best
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Sun reflects off the mist
blown
away from the top of the falls |
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Colton, Jack and Teri check
out Bridalveil Creek |
Rock climbing is another
favorite activity in Yosemite |
Ribbon Falls drops a
total of 2,425 feet
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Fun in the Merced river |
Even more fun in the mud |
Jack shares his mud with
Grandma Teri |
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Colton, Teri and Jack in
the river |
Dramatic El Capitan |
Yosemite Falls the way
it should be
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And the way it was in
August
2015, 3rd year of drought |
Cathedral Rocks |
This
boulder was no doubt deposited by
the glaciers that carved out Yosemite Valley |
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Pointing out the tunnels
across the canyon
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A truck enters one of the
three
tunnels on the Tioga Pass Road |
You can never see too
many
pictures of Half Dome |
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Cedar Grove
Campout |
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Clouds
over Big Stump parking
area near park entrance |
Burned
twice - McGee Fire in
1955, Rough Fire in 2015 |
Another
area of the Rough Fire |
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Junction
of the Middle and
South Forks of the Kings River |
Yucca
along the road between
Grant Grove and Cedar Grove |
Grizzly
Falls at its best |
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This
should NOT be necessary |
The river
gives its own warning! |
Canyon
live oaks near Roaring River Falls |
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Knapp's
Cabin, oldest building in Kings Canyon |
The
interior is still in good shape |
North
Dome |
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Roaring
River Falls |
View
from the opposite side of the river |
Roaring
River below the falls |
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Granite
Creek |
Teri
on the bridge over Granite Creek |
The
bridge from downstream |
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Bridge
over the Kings River on
the Zumwalt Meadow trail |
Zumwalt
Meadow |
House-size
boulder by the meadow trail |
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A
venerable cedar near
the start of the trail |
These
old-style signs are
rarely seen these days |
Sheep
Creek Falls |
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Dick
on the bridge across Sheep Creek |
Granite
"stacked up" beside the creek |
Monarch
Divide from Don Cecil Trail |
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View up
Kings Canyon |
Rocky
peak above the canyon |
Grizzly
Falls, dirty from storm runoff upstream |
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Middle
Fork of the Kings River |
Mist
over the main Kings River Canyon |
Live oaks
on the heliport road |
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View up
the Middle Fork |
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Panoramic
Point Trail |
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Kings Canyon
back country from Panoramic Point |
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Readers
are urged to help identify the flowers listed as "Uknown" |
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Blazing
Star |
Grand Collomia |
Unknown 2 |
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Fireweed |
Teri and
a tall fireweed plant |
Western
Meadow Asters |
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Clarkia |
Unknown 5 |
Unknown 6 |
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Bear
Clover |
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Unknown 7 |
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Father's Day
at Courtright
(Photos by Teri Liddle, Wes Thiessen & Dick Estel) |
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Double
dome east of the trailhead |
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The
giants' marble game |
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Dome
between trail and lake |
Tiny
yellow flowers |
Tiny
white flowers |
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The trail
through the meadow |
Teri and
Jennifer in the meadow |
Wes and
Mikie |
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The creek
through the meadow |
The
bigger creek east of the trail |
A tiny
waterfall on the creek |
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Looks
like a deliberate
rock circle arrangement |
The big
granite slab, boulders
and a dome in the distance |
Wes and
Dick |
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Teri,
Dick and Jennifer |
Our
hiking crew: Dick, Mikie,
Jennifer, Wes and Teri |
Clouds
over the forest |
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Maxson
Dome, north of the granite slab area |
Mikie
looking for fish |
Falls on
Bear Creek where it
crosses McKinley Grove Road
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Tokopah
Falls Trail |
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This sign lies |
Marble Fork of the Kaweah
River |
Cedar beside the trail |
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The river runs over a rock
bed in this spot |
Teri on one of several
bridges on the trail |
A great place to rest and
enjoy the falls |
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Cliffs on the
north side of the canyon |
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The full view
of Tokopah Falls, top to bottom |
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Lower section of the falls |
This guy watched the
tourists
who were watching him |
Looking down the Tokopah
Valley from the falls |
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The Watchtower
stands guard on the south side of the canyon |
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More of the north side
cliffs |
Dick on a nice section of
the trail |
The
Watchtower from the trail down river |
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Yellow-throated
gilia were the most common
flowers along the trail
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Bright yellow stands out in
the greenery |
Kelley's
Lily |
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More green than yellow |
Scarlet gilia |
Another flower to be named
later |
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Related
Links |
|
Yosemite
National Park |
Wawona
Tunnel |
Tunnel
Photos |
Bridalveil
Falls |
Ribbon
Falls |
Yosemite
Falls |
Cascade
Falls |
Knapp's
Cabin |
Zumwalt
Meadow |
Grizzly
Falls |
Roaring
River Falls Video
|
Roaring
River Falls |
Grant
Grove |
Kings
Canyon National Park |
Cedar
Grove |
Rae
Lakes Loop |
Rough
Fire |
Glacial
Moraines |
Dusy-Ershim
Trail |
John
Muir Trail |
Hell
for Sure Pass |
Tokopah
Falls |
Marble
Fork of the Kaweah |
Kaweah
River |
Lodgepole |
Muir Grove |
Little
Baldy |
Big
Baldy Trail |
Francois
Matthes |
Generals
Highway |
|
|
|