Yosemite - Jan 2023

I’ve been to Yosemite at least 12 times in my life, and not one of those times have been in the winter. I’ve been missing out.

My (somewhat terrible) excuse was that I probably couldn’t handle the cold, which I think is a pretty valid reason. Having lived a fairly temperate part of California most of my life, I was used to pretty temperate weather. To be honest, this is probably most people’s excuse.

So, when I finally went camping a few weeks ago nearby and it dipped to 35 degrees in the night, I realized it actually wasn’t horrible. After 6 years of trying, it looks like I finally got my layering system down.

So off I went to Yosemite we went!

We figured that with all the storms over the past month, Yosemite would be covered in snow (or at least have a small layering). And now that it’s been sunny for a while, the roads were probably clear enough for our car to make it.

For those curious about going: There were some tire chains in effect. Our Outback Wilderness came stock with some all-terrain tires that were rated for some snow, so we didn’t have any trouble getting through the icy parts of the roads (and most of the Valley roads was plowed pretty well). Read more about the tire chain requirements from the NPS site here.

I can’t remember the last time I saw frost like this:

I’m not sure why, but I always find myself drawn to photographing this feature below.

Bonus picture from a nearby vantage point, June 2020 in the middle:

We were short on daylight (we arrived around 11:30am) so we kept our itinerary fairly chill. The only requirement we had was to explore the Valley and stop by Mirror Lake. We ended up missing out on Tunnel View, but we’ll be back for it!

We walked our pup around the Valley Floor for a while and spent a long time playing with icicles (have some shots on my film camera, will post them when I get them developed). The pup didn’t seem bothered by the cold at all. He was all decked out in Ruffwear gear:

Kano’s Gear

Stumptown Quilted Dog Coat Size M - Fits him perfectly, and adjustment looks work great for all dog shapes.
GripTrex Dog Boots (Plus the socks, sold separately) - I don’t remember what size we got him, but these are not snow boots so they are not waterproof. There were some huge puddles in some parking lots that Kano stepped into, and his paws got soaked. I’d suggest getting the snow Ruffwear snow booties if you’re taking your pup to the snow, especially if they like to romp around.
Hemp Hound™ Dog Sweater Size M - This one runs big/loose. We used to have the Fernie dog sweater in size S and it fairly well except the armpits and the neck area were a tad too tight. We had tried on a size Fernie M and it looked fine, so we opted for M in the Hemp Hound dog sweater. Maybe it’ll shrink a bit with a few washes.

Mirror Lake: A seasonal lake — a cool point of interest to stop by in the wintertime. 2mi RT hike.

I’ve only been here when the lake was all dried up — I’m glad I was finally be able to capture a shot like this! The parking lot was closed off, so we hiked over here after parking at Curry Village, which made the RT mileage a bit closer to 3 miles.

After we got all our shots in around the area, we stopped to make a quick lunch:

We haven’t been backpacking as much as we’ve wanted to, so we had a big backlog of backpacking meals to use up. This one is one of my favs. Highly recommend if you’re looking to try something new.

Heads up for dog owners: Dogs are only allowed up until the paved trail ends, which is about 2/3s of the way in. Our pup took a break in the car with all his blankets while we did this hike.

We were just about to make it back to our car at Curry Village when we saw this beautiful scene:

Everyone had gathered in the area to play in the snow across the boardwalk, or staking their claim for the best spot to capture the sunset illuminating Half Dome.

I didn’t want to try to wedge my way between the folks on the boardwalk. Here is my shot:

Even as I walked away to the parking lot, I couldn’t stop taking more photos:

Like — look at this! Sidenote: I wish we had moved our car into that parking spot, haha.

We finally make it back to the car, and the sun has set. While B took the pup out for a bathroom break before we set off on our long drive back home,

I grabbed a few more shots:

Cuties.

Til next time.