Clouds over Yosemite
This weekend we went to last backpacking trip to Sunrise lakes in Yosemite. The fall at high country has come with bright yellow colors and afternoon thunderstorms. We hiked to the upper lake on the first day, setup camp and then hiked to the ridge overlooking High Sierra Camp nearby. That’s when thunderstom started scaring the kids and forcing us to look for cover under trees. First patch of hail and rain were quickly but would return through out the evening.
Nothing beats hearing the yapping of a coyote at 6 am. Saturday morning was clear and warm we hiked to Clouds Rest reaching summit around 10:30 am, we were alone up there enjoying solitude, clear skies and amazing vistas. All of that has quickly changed however. As we started our descent more people were arriving to the summit and clouds moved in threating with immenent rain. It sprinkled lightly till afternoon allowing us to get back to camp and then skies open up with rain and hail. We decided to cut the trip one day short and hike out now instead of hiking out the next morning. We packed under light rain and reached the car by 5pm, kids were worn out completely.
One the way back we made obligatory stop by Olmstead point hoping for some sun, but clouds we were blanketing the area making it clear that fall has moved in Yosemite.