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Snow Camping - March 2001 - Yosemite National Park

What a difference a year makes... and a month... and good weather! This year we headed out a month later than our usual mid-February snow camping trip and were treated to fantastic weather. In case you don't remember last year's trip, check out the pics (Snow Camping February 2000) and compare.

Last year we had 3 feet of snow and gray skies for the whole weekend. This year we had blue skies the whole time! Fantastic sunsets and glorious early morning sun, too! Last year we had to dig the car out in the parking lot before we could head out. This year it was toss in the gear and go! And without chains! What a difference picking a good weather weekend makes.

Here we are the the Badger Pass parking lot after assembling our gear and eager to begin the hike in. Those ear-to-ear grins give you some idea of how much we are anticipating a glorious weekend of spectacular weather. The temperature was probably around 48 degrees, but it seemed much warmer. Look... no snow on the ground... no tire chains. Happy!

We hiked to the same spot that we found on our last trip since we wanted to see what it looked like. Last year there was no way to tell since the visibility was near zero the whole time. When we arrived, we couldn't believe the view. Last year all we saw was gray. We couldn't even see the next ridge over. This year we could see almost all the way to the sea!

Here's a happy Linda (happy that it's not all gray and snowing) near the spot where we camped showing the view. Not bad, huh?

One of the most fun things (I think) about snow camping is building a snow kitchen. It makes cooking and eating almost like being at home - with a gigantic skylight overhead. A bench for sitting, a table for cooking and a shelf for settin' things. The last time we were out, we didn't bother with a snow kitchen since the constant snowing would have just kept burying all our stuff. So last year we cooked near the tent. This year we dined in style!

Here I am digging our snow kitchen. See the ridge in the distance... last year we didn't even know it was there... too socked it. We picked a spot just down and away from the tent that we figured would catch the early morning sun and would also give us a view of the setting sun. We picked well, as you will be able to see from some of the sunset photos that follow.

Here we are all bundled up, getting dinner ready, sipping our hot chocolate and watching the sky change colors as the sun begins to go down right in front of us. We picked a west-facing site just for this reason... beautiful sunsets. We weren't disappointed.

These pictures don't even begin to do justice to the spectacular display of colors that unfolded each evening with the setting sun. This was the first time Linda had been treated to such lovely sunsets. Before, we got a short sunset on only one evening two years ago when we were camped at Dewey Point. We had walked over to the Point to check out the setting sun and the clouds clear just long enough for us to see the sun dip below the horizon. Then the fog from the Valley below came back in and obscured everything. And last year... nothing. Not even a hint of color. But this year more than made up for it.

And as if the night skies weren't enough... During the days the cloud formations were beautiful. Here's one that had a little rainbow effect in it. It's hard to see in the picture, but it was beautiful. I wish the picture showed it better.

Ah... kicked back in the snow kitchen. This is Sunday morning and as you can tell the happy camper is lookin' relaxed.

Did I mention our new tent? If you checked out last year's pics, you might have notice that the tent was as gray as the skies. That's because we had borrowed a friend's tent. It was a great improvement over our small two person tent since his could accommodate 2 or 3 people (depending on their size, I guess). Our old tent is a rectangle and our friend's is a dome shape which gave us more room. And since we spent a lot of time in the tent last year, we really appreciated the extra room. So we decided that this year we wouldn't go out until we had a new roomy tent.

And here's Linda in it! The other thing neither one of the other tents had was a vestibule for foul weather. Yes, that's right, last year and the year before when we really needed a vestibule, we didn't have one. This year, when we didn't need one at all, we had one of the best designed vestibules on the market - although you can't tell from these pictures of the tent since we didn't have it set up as there was no need. We did practice pitching the vestibule and tying down the rain fly, so that in the future, when the weather isn't as nice as it was this weekend, we won't be caught off guard not knowing how to do it. Practice, practice, practice. Always good to practice something before you need to do it. Or as the saying goes, "When you're drowning, it's too late to learn how to swim."

On Saturday and Sunday, we took day hikes and explored the area (left).

Here I am checking the compass to see which way to go (center).

And here's Linda showing me the sign on the tree that marks the well trodden trail (right).

Well, two adventurers like us couldn't be content with the well traveled path so we decided to hike off trail and explore the untracked wilderness. After a while we got hungry (as all great explorers do) and started looking around for a likely spot to have lunch. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a picnic table in the untracked wilderness.

However, the forest spirits blessed us with a large tree stump that I fashioned into a bench for us to sit on.

After a brief repast we decided to search for the main trail and get back to camp for the next glorious sunset. Over lunch I had mused to Linda that, "Wouldn't it be funny, after all the wandering around off trail that we just did, if we ended up only a few feet from the main trail." Well, as it turned out, that's exactly what happened. We were only about 25 yards away from the main trail. So much for the great explorers and adventurers... we were never that far from civilization. But it sure felt like it.

Back in camp I began preparing another delicious meal. Well... I say "I" when really it was Linda who pre-prepared all our dinners at home. All I had to do was heat them up. Hey... It felt like cooking. The truth be known, I like cooking in the great out-of-doors. It's just that Linda's meals are so much better tasting.

All too soon it was Monday morning and time to pack up and return home. After years of backpacking together, Linda and I have evolved quite an efficient system for breaking camp.

She packs up everything inside the tent and I handle everything outside the tent.

In my outside domain, I stuff what seems like too much stuff into our packs.

Now, while one of the joys of snow camping is building a snow kitchen, one of the duties is destroying it. It's considered bad winter camping etiquette to leave deep trenches in the snow that can act like traps for unsuspecting skiers. So before we left, I filled in the marvelously designed snow kitchen that I had so painstakingly built only days before.

Here it is right before I returned it to it's natural state. And here it is in it's natural state.

OK... OK... So it's not exactly like I found it. At least it's not a pit. And the sun will smooth things out in a couple of days.

The hike out was easy. If you recall (we sure did), as we hiked out the previous year, the light snow turned to rain as the temperature rose making for a wet walk. This year sure was different.

And we had the smiles to prove it.

Here's Linda mid-stride. From where we camped it virtually all downhill back to the parking lot and our packs are much lighter since all that good food is now in our bodies rather than on our backs. Not to mention the very light empty fuel bottles. Why is it that on the hike in, when our packs are heavier, we are always going uphill and when our packs are lighter on the hike out, we are going downhill. You would think I would have figured out how to arrange that better. Oh well... maybe next time.

Needless to say, we made it to the parking lot, tossed our gear in the car and headed out without a hitch. There was no shoveling the car out from under a pile of snow this time. Thank you, Mother Nature!

And... Since the weather was so good this trip and we could see the views, we decided to take some pictures of some points of interest in Yosemite Valley on our drive out.

This is a view of Yosemite Valley from a spot along the road that goes from the Badger Pass ski area back into the Valley. That's Half Dome in the center of the photo. Bridalveil Falls is the barely visible white line in the shadows on the right side of the picture. (Look straight down from the tip of the pine tree branch in the top right corner. The little white line in the middle of the photo is the Falls.)

Here's a much better shot of Bridalveil Falls (left) from the Valley floor with the Merced River in the foreground.

This is El Capitan (center). Rock climbers consider this one of the finest climbs in the Continental United States.

And here is the famous Yosemite Falls (right). This picture shows the Upper Falls. The Lower Falls is hidden by the trees. Notice that there is still some snow on the ground in the Valley. Yosemite Valley is about 4,000 feet in elevation. Where were camped off the Glacier Point Road is about 7,400 feet in elevation. Not only a considerable difference in elevation, also a considerable difference in snow depth. We were camping in anywhere from 8 to 14 feet of snow.

Did I mention the weather? I'm sure I did, but you should also know that the temperatures on the weekend were very warm. Highs between 44 and 48 degrees and lows between 24 and 28 degrees. Well... That's warm by snow camping standards.

And since it was mid-March, it was already Spring in most of California.

Here's a field of golden California Poppies we passed on the drive home to the Bay Area.

Was it a great trip? You bet!

Are we looking forward to next year? Absolutely!

After two years of putting up with snow storms, gray skies and freezing nights, Linda finally had the snow camping experience that I had been touting: beautiful weather, clear skies, starlit nights and daytime temperatures warm enough for short sleeves. In a nutshell, it was a fabulous trip.

Want to join us next year? There's snow enough for all!