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This morning I went back up to the Taft Point / Sentinel Dome trailhead.
Yesterday I went left to Taft Point, today I went right to Sentinel Dome.
You can see the dome in the background of this picture. The top of the dome
is the destination. |
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It's only a 2.4 mile round trip and about 400 feet of elevation gain so
it's an easy hike. Of course climbing the dome itself is a little steep (and
the fact that you're at 8,000+ feet altitude doesn't help). Sentinel Dome is
the second highest accessible point in Yosemite Valley (Half Dome is ~700
feet higher). |
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View from the top of the dome. The top of Sentiel Dome offers an
excellent unobstructed 360 degree view. It would be excellent for stargazing
at night! |
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There is a big round monument at the top that tells you what you are
looking at in every direction. The view includes El Capitan, Yosemite Falls,
Half Dome, North Dome, Basket Dome, Mt. Hoffman, Mt. Starr King, and the
Clark Range. It's hard to read in this photo but in real life it's a couple
feet across so it's much easier to read. |
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This is the Jeffrey Pine, probably the most famous and most photographed
tree in Yosemite. It died in 1984 as a result of vandalism. It was still
standing just a couple years ago but has since fallen down. |
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I think this view is better than Glacier Point. The top of Half Dome is
supposed to be better, but it's an all day fairly strenuous hike whereas
Sentinel Dome is about a 2.5 mile stroll with a little hill at the end, so
the ROI is pretty good. |
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The view just goes on and on in every direction. |
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Looking out at the Clark mountain range from the top of the dome. |
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Yosemite Falls is completely dry in the fall. Once the snows come the
melt water will feed the falls again in the spring and early summer. |
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Not a cloud in the sky. |
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El Cap's granite wall rises 3,300 feet from the valley. There are
over 70 climbing routes established on the southeast and southwest faces,
though most are simply variants connecting two or more of the older routes.
At any given time from spring to fall, there are dozens of climbers making
their way up one the established routes. Amazingly enough, ascents have been
made in as little as 2 hours, but the average party takes 4-6 days to make
their way up, hauling 100 lbs of gear, food, and water for each person. Down
below, tourists, friends, and loved ones park along Northside Drive and
picnic in El Capitan Meadow while watching the climbers' progress through
binoculars or telescopes. Can you spot the bivouac or climbers in this
photo? |
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Here is the bivouac at the spire. |
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Here is a climbing party (taken from a slightly different angle so I
could get closer). You can see the huge gear/supply bags they are pulling up
as well. |
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On my way out of the park I headed north to Hetch Hetchy and the
O'Shagnaussy dam. This has been one of the most controversial environmental
issues in the area for over 100 years. The dam was built shortly after the
turn of the century despite strong criticism from prominent environmental
voices such as the Sierra Club and John Muir. The Hetch Hetchy valley is
about 2/3 the size of Yosemite valley and quite scenic judging by some old
photos I saw from before it was flooded. |
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O'Shaughnessy Dam is a 312-foot-high, gravity arch concrete dam. The dam
is responsible for Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, located on the main stem of the
Tuolumne River in Hetch Hetchy Valley. The reservoir, with its current
capacity of 360,360 acre-feet (117,000,000,000 gallons), is supplied
primarily by snowmelt from a watershed of 459 square miles located entirely
within Yosemite National Park. |
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They were doing some work on the dam when I was there, though I'm not
really sure what exactly they were doing. |
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The Hetch Hetchy system supplies approximately 85% of the public water
supply for San Francisco and 30 other suburban Bay Area water customers in
San Mateo, Alameda, and Santa Clara counties. The City of San Francisco
supplies approximately 80 million gallons of water per day to its residents,
and an additional 160 million gallons of water per day to its suburban water
customers. So, approximately 1/3 of the Hetch Hetchy system water goes to
residents in San Francisco, with the remaining 2/3 being sold by San
Francisco to 1.6 million suburban water users. The system also generates
about a third of the 1,000 megawatts of electricity used by San Francisco
and Brisbane. |
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You had to duck to walk under this crane on top of the dam. I was very
surprised they were still letting people walk across the dam for several
reasons. I was particularly surprised you were allowed to duck under the
crane that was in motion hauling stuff up and down to the work site pictured
above. |
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I believe there is a lot of thought once again about whether or take
down this dam and restore the valley because San Francisco is looking at an
$8 Billion pricetag to retrofit and update the system to improve water
quality and improve the 160 mile aqueduct system's ability to survive an
earthquake. They have estimated that if a big quake hit the current system
it could leave much of the SF Bay area without water for up to 2 months. So
I think they're looking at alternatives, and the environmental groups are
lobbying hard to drain the reservoir, remove the dam and restore Hetch
Hetchy. |
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Here is a pipe shooting a huge column of water at the rock wall on the
other side. |
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Another view of the area they were working on. |
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Big dark tunnel through the mountain on the far side of the dam. I was
surprised there were no lights in it, as it was pretty long. |
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On the other side of the hill through the tunnel. There was absolutely
nobody else over here. The only other people I saw the whole time were the
work crew on the dam itself. This path winds around the reservior. It was
pretty hot and dry here considering it was mid-October. I can only imagine
what it's like in summer. |
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Hillside erosion underneath a tree. |
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A final look at the reservoir before heading back to the car and driving
back to San Francisco. This is the end of the pictures from my trip that I
am posting on the site. It has gone well past the subject of NSXPO already! |
