Return to Yosemite's Mount Watkins

In May 1987 I parked my Nissan Stanza wagon on a Tioga Road pullout above Hidden Lake and set off on a solo overnight cross-country hike to Yosemite's Mount Watkins. I wanted to witness the sunset and sunrise on Cloud's Rest and Half Dome from this vantage point across deep Tenaya Canyon. I slept out under the bright stars on eroded bare granite among stunted and twisted junipers with glacially-carved monuments all around and the song of Pywiack Cascade rising up from the depths of the canyon.

Thirty-two years later, in August 2019, I found myself on a day-hike with my long-time hiking friend, David Witt, headed back to Mt. Watkins. My goal was to rephotograph a particularly-picturesque juniper at the end of the granite promontory. Unfortunately, I forgot the short-cut of parking above Hidden Lake so we started at Olmsted Point which adds more distance and climbing both ways. This would have been fine but some climbers had their fall cushion on the trail and said they had no idea where the trail was when we asked them. So I decided to just hike down slope not realizing we were on the wrong side of the wrong ridge.

We kept dropping in elevation trying to round the steep ridge to the west but got hemmed in between dense manzanita and the cliffs of Tenaya Canyon. Stubborn as I am I found a laborious way through the brush and we made it to a bare granite slope which took us to the base of the correct ridge and after a climb through a bog and a forested slope we connected with the Snow Creek Trail. Soon we left the trail for the cross-country saunter to the top of Mt. Watkins.

I found and photographed my ancient juniper, which I dubbed "Endeavor." Enjoy these images of our adventure.

Note: Click on any image to enlarge and scroll through.

Cloud's Rest from Mt. Watkins

Endeavor Juniper and Half dome

Another view of Endeavor

Nearing Olmsted Point

On our cross-country route we came across in two places remnants of the old Yosemite Valley to Bodie telegraph wire.