Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne

Location Description

108 photos

Mel and Monica surveying the view ahead.
Mel, Monica and Jasper survey the road ahead. The Grand...
Mel, crossing to the south side of the Tuolumne River.
Crossing the Tuolumne River on a footbridge.
Monica, observing a cascading section of the Tuolumne River.
View upstream.
One of the first waterfalls on our trip.
Stopping for lunch near Glen Aulin, about 6 miles in.
A large granite formation on the north side of the canyon.
Up close. Looks like difficult climbing.
Ox bow bend in the river.
Hiking deeper into the canyon, the walls on both sides...
More tall walls, and a surprising number of fluffy white clouds.
A wildflower explosion!
Monica and a gnarled dead tree.
Mel, approaching an overlook for Waterwheel Falls.
Monica and the Gran Canyon of the Tuolumne ahead.
Looking at Water Wheel Falls.
Monica and John.
The whole gang, taken by a friendly hiker we met at the...
The scenery ahead. More domes and forest and canyon.
Monica in her color-coordinated hiking outfit.
Mel looking back on Waterwheel Falls as we continued down trail.
Hiking through manzanita.
Mel, pulling up the rear.
Jasper, who was always willing to pump water for the...
Monica, relaxing on the bridge over Return Creek.
Passing over Return Creek, and stopping to take a photo.
Following the mighty Tuolumne down canyon.
Another field of wildflowers.
Beautiful emerald pools dotted the river as we worked...
The bugs come out but Monica is prepared.
We passed through a large section of forest that had...
Hark! A waterfall. We found our campsite, with a view of...
Monica unpacks our bivy and starts to set it up.
View of our campsite: Mel sets up Jasper and Mel's tent...
Cathedral Creek, as viewed from our campsite. The moon...
Jasper doing some stretches in camp, and the setting sun...
Monica, and a better view of our sleeping area, complete...
The sun sets behind our campsite.
Jasper and Mel, as we start to prepare dinner.
Heating up some water for the first course of our five...
Moon, setting behind the south wall of the canyon, above...
Bye-bye, moon!
Finishing dinner in the dark.
Morning light in the canyon.
Monica doesn't want to get out of bed.
After countless unsuccessful attempts, Monica becomes...
Ta-da!
Everyone brought a different color Nalgene, except for...
Jasper, our tireless waterboy pumps from a precarious...
Around 9:30 we were finally on the road and by virtue of...
The road ahead.
Marching down through some boulders.
View of a towering wall to the south.
Marching through the woods, where there are these...
Beautiful stretch of the Tuolumne, with Jasper, Mel and Monica.
River stones.
Bright forest greens as we descend lower and lower....
The crew surveying the surrounding hills.
Mel and Jasper looking ahead. As we dropped lower and...
Monica, at the top of a bypass around the Muir Gorge, a...
The crew just before descending a steep section of...
Waterfall at the junction of Rodgers Creek, I think.
Rejoining the mighty Tuolumne, now at < 5000 ft elevation.
Jasper goes on a water slide.
Getting ready for the plunge.
Go Jasper!
Caterpillar on the rock after I got out of the river.
Cruising along.
From our swimming hole, the trail gained some elevation...
Headed into the hot afternoon. Hiking around 5,000 feet at 1pm.
Cascades and the view back up canyon
More wildflowers.
Mel in a field of wildflowers.
Mel in a field of wildflowers, again.
After a long, uphill slog, Hetch Hetchy comes into view.
Monica, Jasper and Mel. There was actually someone...
As we climbed higher, the day wore on and the shadows got long.
Finally, after much reconnoitering, we found what we...
While the fire really got going, Mel reported that she...
... which had basically this view.
So we put out our first fire, packed up our stuff and...
Everyone waves from our aviary-esque pint-size campsite...
The camera's timer function barely gave me enough time...
While we cook dinner, sun sets over the Hetch Hetchy.
Monica cooking dinner.
Hanging out by the fire after dark.
Morning comes to the best campsite ever. This was the...
Sunlight to the east.
Sunlight to the east.
Hetch Hetchy now fully bathed in sunlight.
Morning calisthenics before our last 8 miles back out to...
Zoomed in view of where river meets reservoir.
View from where we slept.
A little less angled.
Jasper and Monica, saying good-bye to our raptor's nest campsite.
Packing up to get on the trail.
Zoomed in view of Hetch Hetchy from the campsite.
With our shadows.
Sign showing how far we had come: 26.1 miles in two days...
Same sign with the hikers.
Someone found a bird's nest and had a snack.
Very zoomed in shot of the Sawtooth Mountain Range,...
Back up at 7,500 feet, Monica hiking through the forest...
A field of wildflowers.
We were treated to miles of wildflowers on the last...
Lots of different colors. After this, we hiked by Lukens...