Yosemite Trip 2012-Day 4

On what turned out to be the last clear day on this year's trip, Britt and I got up somewhat early and headed off toward the Porcupine Creek Trailhead (not Porcupine Flat) to start our hike to North Dome. It took about an hour to drive from the valley to the trailhead and there were already a few cars there with a group of 5 or so guys getting ready. I hate starting a hike at the same time as other people, especially a group of people. Therefore, we hustled getting ourselves ready and were able to get on the trail before the group of men got going. This was in part aided by the men appearing not to be entirely comfortable with the prospect of doing this hike (more on them later). For the first 0.7 miles or so the trail follows an old road downhill before crossing a spring and Porcupine Creek. From here, it continues downhill towards a four-way intersection. Along this section, the trail is mostly in the trees. At the intersection, the Snow Creek Trail comes in from the left (east) and the Lehamite Creek Trail continues straight ahead. At a more slight angle, the North Dome Trail branches off to the left and climbs up to Indian Ridge. As soon as the trail reaches Indian Ridge, there is a short side-trail which leads further uphill towards the natural arch and Indian Rock. Continuing along the ridge, fantastic views start to open up, first of Clouds Rest and Half Dome. At one point along ridge, the official trail turns to the left and steeply descends before turning right again to parallel the ridge. Here, if you continue straight instead of following the trail, you are brought to an outstanding viewpoint of Clouds Rest, Half Dome, Illilouette Fall, and North Dome (above). From this viewpoint, we thought it looked more logical to continue down the ridge towards North Dome but we decided to stay on the main trail (at least on the way down), so we walked back to it.A little bit later, the trail intersects with the trail connecting Lehamite Creek and North Dome. We continued to descend and were soon at the base of North Dome. The final climb to its summit was easy going and we passed a few couples leaving. Perfect! When we arrived at the summit, we had it to ourselves. This lasted for almost as long as we were here. The wind was really blowing on top of North Dome, so we found some shelter from it beside a rock bench. From here, we had front row seats to Half Dome and the Tenaya Canyon below. We set down our packs and I went exploring a little bit more south of the summit. The views of the surroundings got even better and I snapped a few pictures. Back at our lunch spot (below-right), we lounged together and admired the views. While we were sitting there, a few birds kept whizzing by. Literally, they were "whizzing" by. They looked like fighter jets. It took only a split second for them to go from my right peripheral view to the left and then they were gone.After eating lunch, rehydrating and snacking on Peanut Butter M&Ms, we set up the camera on some rocks to take a few pictures of us together. After about the third picture and while I was adjusting the camera for the fourth, a small group of German men came along. One of them offered to take our picture. During this year's trip, we couldn't believe how many Germans there were in Yosemite. A vast majority of the foreigners we noticed in the park were Germans. Heck, about half of all the people we saw were German. It looks like at least one European nation is doing okay and is ready to travel. I showed off my vast knowledge of the German language to him ("Ich verstehe das nicht" and "Wo ist der badezimmer") and I could tell he was blown away.It was time for us to start heading back up towards the trailhead and leave North Dome for others to enjoy. On the way back up, we ran into the group of men I mentioned above. They had only made it a little over 3 miles from the trailhead in over 3.5 hours! They asked us if it was worth climbing the rest (< 1 mile) of the way down to North Dome. We said yes and continued on. As we climbed Indian Ridge, we took a little shortcut. Instead of following the trail along the side of the ridge and then up to where we left it to enjoy the viewpoint, we kept following the ridgeline up to the viewpoint and back to the main trail. This seems like a more logical path to take and we certainly weren't the first ones to do this. I'm not sure what the thinking was with the way the trail is laid out. As we climbed further up the ridge, we discussed whether or not to take the side-trail up to the natural arch. Some accounts said that it was 0.6 miles up to it and others said 0.3 miles. Either way it wasn't too far, but we didn't know if it would be worth it since it was a 200'+ climb. As we approached the trail junction, we noticed the natural arch up ahead. We took a few pictures of it with our telephoto lens and were thinking that that might suffice. However, when we got to the trail junction we noticed that it would at most be 0.3 miles up to it, so we decided to check it out. Good decision. The natural arch (left) is pretty cool, especially considering that it is made of granite, which is pretty rare. The arches in Arches National Park are made of sandstone. You can also look through the arch at Half Dome. Additionally, right next to the arch is a rock (which I assume is Indian Rock, despite the maps labeling it as being further uphill) that has an impeccable resemblance to a human head and face. After this, we headed back down to the main trail and then continued back up toward the trailhead. At the four-way intersection was a large group of kids with a couple of adults looking at maps. This got me thinking about how fun it would be for Britt and I to take our future kids on a backpacking trip in Yosemite.Back at the trailhead, we loaded up our stuff and headed a little further up the Tioga Pass Road to get a view of Tenaya Lake. Since it was a clear day and the light looked pretty good, we decided to also stop at Olmstead Point. Another good decision. I had scouted this viewpoint out and was excited to see it in person. From the parking lot, you walk down a short path to an exposed granite hill. From here are great views of Clouds Rest and Half Dome further down the Tenaya Canyon (right). In the foreground are many glacial erratics (boulders transported and left behind by glaciers), glacial striations (scratches in the bedrock made by boulders on the bottom of a glacier), and windblown junipers to add more interest to a photo.Back in the valley, Britt and I were too lazy to make our own dinner so we got pizza and beer at Curry Village for the second (but not last) time. On our way back to our campsite, we noticed the weather forecast for the next couple of days. Rain/snow was coming mid-day on the next day and lows dipping down into the 30's the next night. Good thing we were planning on an "off" day for our last full day in Yosemite.