Sunday 12th September
I managed to get up in time for breakfast today and had a nice ham and cheese omelette. There was even a copy of The Fountainhead on the bookcase so I read Ayn Rand's introduction. It's an odd book to find in a backpacker hostel -- judgeing from the penciled underlining of Rand's statement of the superiority of laissez-faire capitalism I think someone might have been having a little joke...
I set off for the Yosemite visitors' center to see that movie. It was well worth seeing, it was beatifully shot and showed hard to access parts of the park at all times of the year. I just wished the narrator would stop with all that "spirit of Yosemite" new age claptrap.
I decided to get some walking done today. The hostel's guidebook has an article sneering at people who just go to take photographs of the places they can get to by car. I hate that kind of backpacker superiority complex, but nonetheless wanted to spend some time really experiencing the park.
After buying supplies at the Village Store I headed up Glacier Point Road, stopping for that classic picture of the valley at the Tunnel Viewpoint that I'd been in too much of a hurry for last night, and stopped at the Sentinel Dome parking lot.
I walked first to Taft Point. The trail led through woodland and came out a mile further along by some fissures in the cliff face through which the bottom of the valley could be seen two thousand feet below. Taft Point itself is a piece of rock jutting out over the valley. You can stand right on the edge and look down, there is only a rudimentary railing. I was reminded of Priekestolen in Norway.
I sat down and ate a beef sandwich and admired the view of El Capitan. I tried to spot climbers who are apparently always to be seen scaling its sheer face but neither my eyes nor the zoom lens of my video camera could see them.
I felt I hadn't gone far enough to have achieved anything, so when I spotted a sign for Sentinel Dome 2.2 miles away I followed that trail after only a momentary debate with myself. It wound down and down for what seemed like miles through woodland. There was no-one else around. Two things played on my mind: I'm going down a lot and will have to come back up at some point; and this looks a lot like good bear territory. I comforted myself with the knowledge that Yosemite bears do not eat people.
The trail became quite rough as it ran along a steep hillside. At the bottom of the hill to my left was a long drop and the valley floor. Across the valley were granite walls. The view was worth the effort! I was astonished at some of the places huge trees will grow; on steep cliff faces there does not seem to be any space for their roots, but somehow they manage without falling of.
Just as I was beginning to think I must have taken a wrong turn I came across a sign for Sentinel Point 0.5 miles away. Then I spotted it towering above me. There were switchbacks leading up to the granite dome, and then a steep climb up the rock face. It wasn't as hard as it should have been. Perhaps I was spurred on by the thought of reaching a goal. A friend who runs long distances says such things are mostly mental, so maybe my unfitness did not play a big part!
The view was superb and I had the top of this world all to myself. I sat and rested, wandered around and photographed the strange, gnarled, dead tree.
On the way back down I fell off the trail and ended up on the road, but I didn't know which way it was to the car park. Luckily I met a German guy who had done the same thing, and together we found our way back to the trail.
On the drive down I was held up by some cars who took the 35mph limit seriously, and missed the sunset at Tunnel Vista. But I did arrive back at the hostel in time for dinner: a nice steak cooked just the way I like it, all pink and juicy!