Our Cloud’s Rest Adventure
What were we thinking?
Our longest hike up to this point was perhaps 7 or 8 miles in a single day. For whatever reason, both of us were lured to Clouds Rest, a high ridge at 9,926 feet above sea level and about 5,900 feet above Yosemite’s valley floor. With all the attention Half Dome gets, Clouds Rest hovers about 1,100 feet over Half Dome’s peak and offers a spectacular view of the dome and the Valley below, with a distinctive view, just opposite the traditional view of Half Dome.
Enamored by the commanding vantage point of Clouds Rest, we set our sights on our longest hike ever attempted: 14.5 miles round-trip from the Tenaya Lake/Sunrise trailhead.
What were we thinking?
We also chose to ignore the fact that we would be climbing almost 1,800 feet in rise over rough terrain in the thin air of the High Sierras. We are from Alabama. This trail carried a strenuous rating of 8 out of 10!
What were we thinking?
Setting our first foot along the trail at about 8:15 am, we traversed Tenaya Creek and enjoyed the meandering beauty of the woods, creeks, lakes, and scenery. We met fellow hikers and shared our mosquito repellent and our hopeful itineraries and sent them on, obviously at a faster pace than ours. Then we tackled the tortuous series of switchbacks, covering a 1,000-foot elevation gain in a mile. It was described as being built by a contractor who was paid in tequila. At that elevation, it took its toll on these two bodies. Two trail junctions, one in particular with confusing signage, slowed us a bit, but with the help of other hikers, we took the right trail on the way to the top of the world.
We arrived at the top of Clouds Rest at about 3:30 pm and found the views were as spectacular as promised. God blessed us with a beautiful cotton-candy-cloud kind of day, and we were tired but thrilled. Our views looking forward at Half Dome, Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, and the valley floor were astounding. Our views over-the-shoulder up Tenaya Canyon to Tenaya Lake were just as awesome. It made us tired just looking at how far we’d come!
The stark reality of Tenaya Lake being our new destination brought a sobering realization: We had 7.2 miles to go before we got back to our car. We had trekked up in a little more than 7 hours, and sunset was scheduled to arrive at 8:15 pm. We were glad we had purchased some quality hikers’ headlamps for night hiking, as we were destined to put them to good use.
The switchbacks in the lingering light were now a different kind of challenge than on the ascent. The danger of twisted ankles on the incredibly rocky switchbacks meant v-e-r-y slow going. The blazes on the trees became increasingly more important to us as daylight diminished.
Nightfall overtook us, slowing our snail’s pace even more. Boy did everything look different at night. With the journey taking so long and our legs reaching the exhaustion state, we kept replaying in our minds the milestones we remembered on our way up. And we became convinced we were on the wrong trail.
With our mistrust of the trail signage eating at our confidence, we stopped, talked, prayed, and decided to journey back up the trail until we found the junctions where we knew we were on the right one. It was just after 10 pm. If we had to huddle up to stay warm, we figured we’d wait until daylight to get our bearings and complete the journey.
Water: check. Food: check. Lights: check. Bears: We switched from praying to see wildlife to praying they would not see us.
Back up the rocky slopes at an incredibly slow pace, we rose about 800 feet (again). We didn’t make it to familiar territory before we were totally spent. We opted to try to curl up and get some sleep. Now it was about 1:00 am, and temperatures had dropped to the mid-30s.
It only took an hour to realize it’s hard to sleep when you are shivering uncontrollably. So we geared back up and hit the trail at about 2:15 am. We decided that even though we were on the wrong trail, it would end in a trailhead somewhere.
We painstakingly traveled down the rocky hill we had just trudged up and figured we’d at least stay warm if we were moving. We were ready for sunrise or civilization, whichever came first.
Just after 5 in the morning, the sky was beginning to brighten, and the trail smoothed out to the wooded valley. And there we saw them: two hikers beginning their hike up to Clouds Rest! We can’t describe the joy and relief to see someone who actually knew where they were!
We asked where they started … Tenaya Lake trailhead! Woohoo! We had been on the right trail the entire time! The parking lot was just ahead. We crossed the creek again, boots and all, and arrived at the car at 5:54 am, a mere 21 hours, 37 minutes, and 29 seconds after we began our adventure. Best we can figure, we hiked just under 19 miles total. Boy did the beds in Curry Village feel good!