Yosemite Forum

Yeah, I wouldn't say there's more solitude in Mineral King... I never go on holidays and the last time I was there, it was pretty darn busy. The switchbacks going up some of the passes are all out in the open and you can do a head count. The only time we had solitude was crossing Farewell Gap into Golden Trout, we saw no one after leaving the park boundary.

Oh man, all the webcams look horrible. Long range view, short range view...just thick smoke that you can actually watch change shape from frame to frame, minute to minute.

If you have a good respirator and a big bottle of eye wash, you could probably get your pick of the litter on permits.

NASA image of the smoke plume area:

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/file ... rguson.jpg

The sky in Fresno is a good indicator. Ugly stuff.

We're going east, not north, this weekend. National Forest here we come.

What about heading to Desolation or the TRT, Justin? You should be able to grab a permit for early-mid week without much problem. Granity, and no wrapping the car.

This morning our cabin in Twain Harte was completely smoked out. Would not want to hike in that stuff...

Phil wrote:What about heading to Desolation or the TRT, Justin? You should be able to grab a permit for early-mid week without much problem. Granity, and no wrapping the car.

Don’t know Desolation at all, but quick googling suggests it might work well for us. Most difficult part though is we fly out early afternoon tomorrow, so there’s precious little time to plan. Do you have a recommendation for a 35 mile loop? Looks like you can search for available permits online, but I’ve no idea about which trailheads etc...

Real seat-o-the-pants.

Get to SFO, drive up through Sacramento on I-80, then take Hwy 50, hit the permit office a little past Pollock Pines along the way, see what's available, get a map, design your route and ask your questions while you're standing there. If it's still early enough, hit your trail. If not, head to the south shore of Tahoe and get a room and/or last minute supplies like fuel cansiters, then drive up to Echo Summit in the morning. For ease of access to the trail system, the car (parking, return, time constraints) start out at Echo Lakes along the PCT and wing it from there.

For regulations, permit office locations, etc;

http://www.desowv.org/files/obtainingpermit.pdf

Have fun.

Getting back to the fire briefly, for those who haven't seen the news they are closing Glacier Point Road tonight at 10pm, to set up a firefighter's camp at Badger Pass Ski area

Now there are fires in Mineral King... just going to be one of those years.

The Ferguson Fire is just scary, because it's really out of control. Hope they are able to get it more contained in the next 24 hours or it will be burning up Yosemite west and Wawona.

hope they get this fire under control soon.

would be nice for a little rain to assist

Im hoping for the fires to go out too. was planning on backpacking Yosemite August 12-19.

not sure how thats gonna play out with the fires

They're making some progress, but smoke is going to be around for some time. That's rugged terrain, and while they're definitely throwing everything they have at it, most of the progress is setting up to stop it where they can. It's directly west of Yosemite, headed for Yosemite, and realistically, it's not going out entirely until it runs out of fuel or the rains come. No shortage of fuel. The big, critical fight for the park itself in areas where it hasn't burned over fairly recently will happen at Yosemite West, Hwy 41, El Portal, and Wawona. Over 33,000 acres, 13% containment as of this morning.

http://goldrushcam.com/sierrasuntimes/i ... 23-updates

Tuolumne Meadow last Sunday July 16

Half Dome from CR on Tuesday July 17