Whenever I go on a trip to Yosemite National Park, I always cringe at the thought of entering the valley and competing for parking with the masses of tourists that come every summer. Every year, it gets worse and worse. One day, I decided I was not going to go into the valley and explore the other side of Tioga Pass (Highway 120).
Lower Cathedral Lake and Peak
I ended up at this place called Tuolumne Meadows and the first thing I did was check out the visitor center. It was busy and full of tourists but not nearly as bad as Yosemite Valley. This part of the park is where the real hikers come to sojourn. The first I did was talk to a ranger and ask what is a good day hike or overnighter in the area.
That is how I found out about the Cathedral Peak trail. It is apparently a popular trail/hike and the famed Naturalist John Muir wrote about it. If I have done the research beforehand, I might have found out and learned about it. However, blazing the trail and finding it out firsthand is always my preferred method of discovery.
Upper Cathedral
So here, I was discovering an outstanding location to photograph and I am pumped and ready to tackle it! I have all my gear and freeze-dried food ready to cook under a full moon out in the dark of the wilderness. I strapped my backpack on ready to hit the road when the ranger asked if I had a permit.
"A permit?"
"For what?"
It turns out that you need a permit if you wanted to go gallivanting around the wilderness for more than a day! I do not have one. Ouch! I asked the ranger if I could just get one of the spots and unfortunately, they are over quota, however, I could get a permit that has reserved for walk-ins for a hike the next day.
Well, what other options do I have? Therefore, I got a permit for the next day and I will just have to rough it out on my jeep for the night. I parked the jeep adjacent to the street where the trail starts and went on to sleep. Around midnight, I heard a rustling just outside the vehicle and for a minute, I thought it was a wild bear looking for food.
I love sleeping under this
Suddenly I saw a very bright flash of light emanating from my window and then I heard knocking on the door. I looked up and through the bright; I could discern a ranger’s hat and then I heard a stern voice.
"Sir, you cannot car camp in the park!"
Dazed and confused. I hastily fumbled around to find my keys and started the Jeep.
"I am sorry, officer, I did not know."
The ranger lets me go with just a warning but now I had to drive all the way outside the park and find someplace to sleep. I drove to the edge of the park border, found a place to park on the side of the road, and tried to salvage the rest of the night with some sleep.
I woke up at 5 am the next day and rushed to back to the trail so I did not have to deal with the possible onslaught of other hikers I have to contend with. I got a quick breakfast at the cafeteria near the ranger station and prepared for my hike.
Quick breakfast at Tuolumne Meadows with Tabasco and Coffee to Wake me up!
The trail starts at Tuolumne Meadows (8000 ft.), and take the John Muir Trail, on the south side of Tioga Road. I hiked for a bit and after about 1 mile an unmarked trail appeared on my left it appears to be a less traveled route and probably used for mountain climbers. I stayed on the main trail and continued the slow ascent towards the first lake.
There's Cathedral Peak on the background
According to the little brochure, I got at the visitor center the trail should only take about 3-5 hours to complete round trip. There is roughly around a 1,000 ft. of elevation gain if you were to go all the way to Upper Cathedral Lake. For this trip, I just wanted to camp at Lower Cathedral Lake and do Upper Cathedral Lake another day.
On the Cathedral Lake trail
About 2 hours into the trail, I took a break near a fork off the trail where the famed JMT (John Muir Trail) merges. I saw another couple emerging from the JMT and they too wanted to take a break. We started to have a conversation and I learned that they have been on the trail for 16 days.
I asked how it was and they raved about how great the hike was regardless of how tiring and difficult it was. The only thing they complained about is that they have had to eat freeze-dried food for weeks and really miss a warm home-cooked meal. I saw the sadness in their eyes and wish I could offer them some comfort but all I had were some freeze-dried food and crackers.
We bantered on while eating energy bars when we saw this rather elderly man carrying an external frame backpack. This dude could easily be like 70 years old (or older) but he’s walking on with this massive metallic backpack. I mean, the thing could have easily been twice the size of my backpack.
Here I was tired as hell and this old person is strolling along with this brick of an object on his back, as it was goose feather.
He decided to take a break as well and joined us for a conversation. I proceeded to tell him about the couple’s plight and how they have not had a decent meal for weeks. I can see that this fired something up from the old man because his eyes suddenly glowed and said.
"I got you covered."
He then proceeded to crack open his massive backpack and reached in to pull out (and I still could not believe it to this day) **a whole cooked rotisserie chicken.
A whole rotisserie chicken?
What in the hell?
Who goes backpacking through the mountains with a whole rotisserie chicken in their backpack? Has the world gone mad? I just sat there slack-jawed at what I was seeing but the couple just could not see how weird this whole thing is because they have not eaten normal food in days. They were ecstatic that this old man would be offering them a real cooked meal.
Ready to fly away and catch that rotisserie chicken
I asked the old man if he had a whole kitchen in this backpack and that sent everyone into a raucous laughter.
After the break, we all went our separate ways and I was already just minutes away from Lower Cathedral Lake. I was lucky too because I can see from the horizon that a freak thunderstorm was underway – very common in the Eastern Sierras. I just barely finished pitching my tent when the hail of ice and rain came falling.
I sat inside the tent for no more than 10 minutes and the storm stopped. I was lucky yet again because at this time, the sun was going to set and from my experience, the best sunsets always happen just after a storm.
The following photos were from that event.
Before the sunset
Moments later
A few minutes more
The final take
I believe I've witnessed the best sunset I’ve ever seen in Yosemite from all the other times I’ve been there. Happy with the photos, I relegated myself back to my tent before it got completely dark. My freeze-dried food was waiting for me for dinner. I turned on the stove and I can hear the water boiling and the crickets are chirping. I can feel a light cool breeze blowing through and the scent of the pines freshened up the air. I really wanted to enjoy the serenity of the moment and drift into a calm dream but all I can think about was rotisserie fuckin’ chicken.
Do you like Rotisserie Chicken?
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." - Mark Twain
All photos are taken and articles are written by Adonis Villanueva of Always Wanderlust unless otherwise stated.
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