Clouds Rest

Seventh trip up Clouds Rest, and the Fourth of July felt like a fitting day to do it again from the Valley floor with mi Lupita — the full Mist Trail grind past Vernal and Nevada Falls, both running nicely, before the long push through Little Yosemite Valley and up onto the exposed granite ridge. 20.8 miles and 6,417 feet of gain is never a small ask, no matter how many times this trail has been walked before.

The falls were the highlight of the early miles, spray drifting across the granite steps at Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall thundering down its full drop in the summer flow. After that the trail settled into its usual long, steady climb through the forest of Little Yosemite Valley before breaking out onto bare granite for the final stretch up to the ridge.

Reaching the top after a full day on trail delivered the same view that keeps pulling this hike back into rotation — Half Dome sitting below and beyond, the whole floor of Yosemite Valley laid out past it, feeling genuinely on top of the world after everything it took to get there. Seven ascents now, all from the Valley floor, and the payoff still hasn't lost a step.

Sixth trip up from the Valley floor, and this one landed right around Thanksgiving again — true winter conditions on the trail, with enough snow built up near the top that I was postholing up to my knees more than a few times on the way to the summit. Slow, tiring work, but the kind of quiet, snowed-in Yosemite that's hard to get any other time of year.

The falls were running heavy and half-frozen along the way, ice building up on the granite next to the churning water — one of those scenes that makes the extra effort of a winter approach worth it on its own. Half Dome looked completely different again under a fresh coat of snow, its granite face striped white against a perfectly clear sky.

Six ascents now, every one of them from the Valley floor, and this one might be the snowiest yet. Twenty-three miles and 6,300 feet of gain is never easy, but postholing through the drifts near the summit made this a genuinely tiring, genuinely beautiful way to spend the days around Thanksgiving.

Fifth trip up from the Valley floor, this time near Thanksgiving — and a pretty great way to spend the holiday week. Late November meant real winter conditions instead of the lingering patches from the spring trips: enough snow had piled up on the upper trail that I spent a good stretch of the day postholing, punching a leg through the crust into knee-deep snow with every few steps, which slows things down and works muscles a twenty-mile day doesn't usually ask for.

The lower trail past the falls was clear enough, but conditions changed fast heading into Little Yosemite Valley and up onto the exposed ridge, where wind-packed drifts sat right over the granite. Slow going in spots, but nothing that felt unsafe with the cables already down for the season and almost no one else out there on a holiday.

Fifth time on the summit ridge, and the view still doesn't get old — Half Dome sitting below and beyond, snow tracing the granite all around it, the whole Valley laid out in the distance. Five ascents now, every one of them from the Valley floor, every one of them a completely different mountain depending on the season. Not a bad way to spend the week of Thanksgiving.

After four trips up Clouds Rest from the Valley floor, this was the first time doing it the easy way — starting from the Sunrise Lakes Trailhead off Tioga Road, right at the west end of Tenaya Lake. Same mountain, same 9,926-foot summit, same jaw-dropping view of Half Dome, but at roughly 14 miles round trip with about 2,300 feet of gain instead of 20 miles and 6,100 feet. It felt almost like cheating.

The trail starts with an easy, nearly flat mile and a half through the Tenaya Lake valley before hitting the one genuinely hard stretch of the day: a steep, rocky push up switchbacks that gains close to a thousand feet in about a mile. After that it's a pleasant, rolling walk through forest and past a small pond for a few miles before the final climb up onto the Clouds Rest ridge itself. We passed a National Park Service ranger out on horseback leading a pack mule along the trail, which felt like a nice throwback to how this backcountry has always been managed.

The last stretch onto the summit ridge is the real show — a narrow spine of exposed granite with Tenaya Canyon dropping away on one side, ending at the same overlook that makes this peak so worth doing: Half Dome sitting below and beyond, the entire floor of Yosemite Valley laid out past it, all the way out to El Capitan and Glacier Point in the haze. Sitting out on that ridge with the whole canyon dropping away below, it was easy to see why the Valley-floor version of this hike keeps pulling me back too — this is just a much faster way to the same unbeatable view.

Fourth trip up the same route, just a couple of weeks after the last one — same Mist Trail, same climb past the falls, same long push through Little Yosemite Valley. At this point the approach itself barely registers as a decision anymore; it's just the way up this mountain, brutal as it is. What changes every time is the mountain itself, and this visit landed in an odd in-between: most of the winter's snow had melted off the lower trail, but the exposed ridge near the top was still holding on to patches of it, granite and snow mixed together under a completely cloudless late-spring sky.

The ridge walk out to the true summit point never gets old, even on a fourth visit — a narrow spine of rock with air on both sides, ending at the same outcrop with the same impossible view of Half Dome sitting below and beyond. Every trip up here so far has landed in a different season with a different mountain waiting at the top, and this one split the difference: enough leftover snow to remember it was still technically spring at 9,900 feet, enough clear sky to see clean across the entire Yosemite high country in every direction.

Four ascents in five years, all from the Valley floor, all roughly the same twenty brutal miles — and it still doesn't feel repetitive. Some mountains you climb once and check off the list; this one just keeps pulling me back.

Third time up from the Valley floor, and this one turned into an overnight instead of a single brutal push — a big April snowpack still blanketing the high country made it smarter to break the Mist Trail grind into two days rather than race it in one. Day one was the familiar climb past Vernal and Nevada Falls, water roaring hard with spring runoff, and up into the high country where the panorama views opened up over ridgelines still striped white with snow well into the trees.

Day two picked up from camp and pushed on toward the summit, back past Nevada Fall in the early going with the granite steps still holding patches of old snow and ice in the shadows. Higher up, the trail disappeared under drifts again, same as the November trip, except this time the light was pure late-April sun instead of winter gray — bluebird skies, deep snow, and none of the bitter cold from the last visit.

Standing on the ridge for a third time, the view still did exactly what it always does: Half Dome sitting below and beyond, the whole Valley laid out past it, snow tracing every line in the granite. Three trips up the same brutal route in five years, three completely different mountains depending on the season — August heat, November ice, and now a spring snowpack that turned the summit into a full-on winter scene under a summer-blue sky.

Four years later I went back and did the exact same route again — Valley floor, Mist Trail, the whole 20-mile grind — just to see what it felt like in a completely different season. Mid-November instead of August changed almost everything about the day except the mileage. I started in the dark and frost, and the spray off Vernal and Nevada Falls had iced over the granite steps along the Mist Trail, so a section I remembered as a wet, crowded scramble the first time was now a slow, careful shuffle with almost nobody else on it.

Past Little Yosemite Valley the snow took over completely, and by the time I was back on the exposed ridge near the summit I was breaking trail through untouched drifts instead of following a worn path. The cables on Half Dome were already down for the season, which meant the whole approach that's normally thick with people in summer was dead quiet — I had long stretches of trail entirely to myself, something that never happened in August.

The view at the top hit differently too. Clear, cold air instead of summer haze meant Half Dome and the Valley floor looked sharper than I remembered, snow tracing every ledge on the granite below me. Same mountain, same route, same overlook — but standing up there freezing and alone made it feel like an entirely different hike than the one I'd done the first time.

I decided to hike Clouds Rest starting from the Valley floor instead of the shorter route off Tioga Road, which meant a full day on trail before I'd even see the summit. The route followed the Mist Trail past Vernal and Nevada Falls, through Little Yosemite Valley, and then kept climbing — by the time the trail narrowed onto the exposed granite ridge near the top, I'd already put in more miles than most people do on this whole hike.

The payoff was worth every one of them. The view from Clouds Rest looks straight down on Half Dome from above and beyond it — arguably a better vantage point than standing on Half Dome itself — with the entire floor of Yosemite Valley laid out past it. It's one thing to know a mountain is enormous; it's another to look down at Half Dome from somewhere higher. A long, long day, but this is the one that made me realize how much I loved this kind of hiking.