We were (over) due a rest day, and Mono Lake was the perfect spot to spend it. This iconic geological oddity combines volcanic origins with extreme mineral abundance (due to there being no natural outflow) to present a spectacle at macro and micro scale. We’d somehow managed to skip past it on our Big Trip…
… so a visit was twenty years overdue.
Volcanic activity created the islands…
… and underwater springs combined with the high mineral content of the water to build these limestone tufa formations (only visible because the water level has dropped over the last 50 years owing to extraction to feed LA).
High salinity equals high density so easy floating (especially with Crocs on!)
Above the lake is arguably America’s youngest mountain range – the Panum Crater is only 600 years old and is a Plug Dome: a two stage volcano with an outer pumice rim and an inner jagged core of obsidian layered with pumice.
As we were wandering around the crater it occurred to me that Mono Lake is just a couple of hours drive over the Tioga Pass from Yosemite Valley. We hadn’t planned to take in The Valley, but the proximity to my “happy place” got me wondering if there might be a free camping spot at short notice. A bit of web searching suggested that all the valley campgrounds were fully booked and most of the high elevation sites were already closed for the season, but there were three sites (pitches) available in the whole of the Park. These were on Porcupine Flat – a happy memory from our Big Trip, so I pressed “checkout” and we were off on a mini-adventure side trip. Stunning views from Tuolumne Meadows down onto Half Dome.
… and a near full moon.
Chatting to a Lithuanian couple at Mono Lake, they mentioned they’d seen a comet the previous evening. We’d been vaguely aware of this celestial event, but hadn’t expected to be able to see it near the western horizon from our base on the eastern side of the Sierra. Our hop over to the other side might just provide an opportunity. Dense tree cover around the campground, and being on the wrong slope of the hill, meant we’d have to go exploring, and Helen cunningly led us to a vantage point about a mile west of Porcupine Creek. This was more in hope than expectation until a gap in the trees revealed a spectacular sight…
… with Venus setting just to add to the effect.
Such a privilege to be able to gaze out over the vastness of Yosemite National Park and witness a once in 80,000 years phenomenon. A bit of Googling after the event revealed that the The Tsuchinshan-Atlas comet made its closest approach to Earth on 12 October at a distance of 71 million km (44 million miles). Interestingly, this big stone has an estimated diameter of around 3km.
Waking to another fine day (if a bit chilly at 8,000ft)…
… we set off down the winding road to get a bit closer to another Big Stone of a similar size.
I never tire of this view…
… or this one:
We hadn’t really come with any climbing intentions – more that it would be rude to pass within such a short distance of a longtime friend without dropping in. In any event, we were only over for a flying visit: there was absolutely no camping to be had in the whole park that night (we’d caught the last day of the season at Porcupine Flat) and a storm front was forecasted for the following day (risking the closure of the Tioga Pass and a long schlep round!) Nonetheless, temptation got the better of us and we decided to bag a quick token route. Pine Line, the classic single pitch 5.7 on the El Cap base was just the job.
This literally starts at the foot of The Nose, and we could watch the log jams on the early pitches of The Nose and Salathe (I’ve heard it said that typically about two in every three parties starting these “trade routes” bail before the end of the first day – you just need to stay patient and the queues will thin out). This is me not bailing on Pine Line!
Anyway, not our problem today. This was as far as we planned to go!
Gazing up at El Cap, it was a joy to retrace earlier adventures and to recollect some of the memorable spots I’d visited on previous trips: Thanksgiving Ledge on Lurking Fear; the huge orange headwall of The Shield and Sunkist;
El Cap Spire on Salathe;
the King Swing and Great Roof on The Nose;
the Black Cave on NA Wall;
the Diagonal Roof on The Trip;
and the Mark of Zoro on Zodiac.
Traditional post-climb beer in the Meadow – Cheers, Bill!
The drive back over Tioga Pass offers another feast for the senses…
… and another trip down memory lane to our first visit to Tenaya Lake in Tuolumne over 30 years ago.
It remains a magical spot.
And to cap off a great sidetrip, on Andy’s recommendation, we called in at the Tioga Pass service station for dinner. An unlikely spot for a gastronomic experience, the self-styled “world-famous fish tacos” did indeed live up to the billing.
RockAroundTheWorld 