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