Yosemite - Half Dome
As part of my training for Mt. Whitney, I recently hiked the John Muir Trail (JMT) at Yosemite National Park with my son. We had applied for a Yosemite wilderness permit months in advance for two nights at Little Yosemite Valley campground as part of our wilderness backpacking adventure.
To no surprise, the Yosemite traffic report recommended we get there as early as possible to avoid the long lines at the park entrance and to secure a parking spot. For this reason, we decided to stay in Oakhurst, CA the night before which is about one hour and twenty minutes South of Yosemite. This allowed us to get an early start the next morning. We had dinner at Stonegate Brewing which I recommend for good food, service and craft beer.
We arrived at Yosemite around 7:30 a.m. on a Monday and there was little traffic. Luckily, we were able to get a parking spot at the Happy Isle Trailhead parking lot. Once parked, we walked over to the Yosemite Wilderness Center to pickup our wilderness camping permit. We decided to add a Half Dome permit for an additional $20 that would allow us to hike up Sub Dome and Half Dome as an option.
We started our adventure at the Happy Isle trailhead after picking up our gear from the car. Shortly into our hike, we learned the popular Mist Trail was closed Monday through Thursday from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. due to trail work. We had to take a detour via the John Muir Trail and Clark Point cutoff trail which added another three miles roundtrip to our hike. Although we missed climbing the big staircase and getting sprayed by mist from Vernal Fall, we were still able to get a good view of the waterfall from Clark Point. We hiked over six miles in and climbed over 2,600 feet before reaching our campground.
After the first night of camping, we started our 3.5-mile hike to Half Dome which included an additional 2,300 feet of climbing. After showing our permits to the Ranger at the base of Sub Dome, we proceeded with the grueling hike up the narrow, rocky staircase. This is one of the most difficult sections of the hike and according to many hikers, even more difficult than the climb up the “cables” to the top of Half Dome.
My 12-year son says he is afraid of heights but asked if we could climb up to the top of Half Dome. I made the difficult decision to skip this part of the adventure. First, I was exhausted from the hike that led us to this point. Second, I was experiencing some pain in my back and legs which questioned my ability to conquer the steep climb up Half Dome. Third, I didn’t know what to expect from my son during the climb. Even though it wasn’t as crowded as I thought it would be, there were some people using harnesses and carabiners for clipping onto the cables which slows the climb considerably for others not using equipment. This would almost double the time spent on the cables and increase the possibility of something going wrong. I was not willing to take the risk. On that note, it was never our goal to summit Half Dome. I simply wanted to bring my son to the top of Sub Dome to show him the incredible beauty and views of Yosemite from that perspective. Mission accomplished.
Red Route: Day one to LYV campground. Blue Route: Day two to base of Half Dome.