Yosemite sans snow like a private jewel
The first weekend of February normally finds the Yosemite Valley firmly in the grasp of winter. Not so this year. Temperatures have been so warm that there isn’t even a hint of snow, ice or frost on the valley floor. Atop Half Dome, there’s just a wisp of snow, nestled in the saddle of its rim summit, lit up by bright sunlight beneath a cobalt sky. At dusk, alpenglow casts El Capitan in an orange luminescence, its towering wall stark and ominous.
All the trails leading out of Yosemite Valley are clear and open. The air has been just cold enough in the morning — a low of 50 at dawn — to give each breath the sense of an innocent purity that you never feel here in the crowded summer months.
The spring-like weather in Yosemite Valley provides a rare opportunity: stellar beauty, trails open and plenty of lodging available, in and out of the park. In winter, you can visit the greatest natural showpiece without competition from travelers from around the world.
For next weekend, with a Friday night arrival and Sunday afternoon departure, I found lodging available at the Majestic Hotel (the Ahwahnee), Yosemite Valley Lodge (near Yosemite Falls), and cabins, rooms and heated canvas tent cabins in Half Dome Village (formerly Curry Village). Outside the park, I found rooms also available at two of my favorites, the Groveland Hotel on Highway 120 and Tenaya Lodge off Highway 41 near Fish Camp, plus many others.
Go during the week and you’re able to book just about anything you want. The one exception could be in midFebruary. If weather, ice and sun refraction is just right at dusk and, in turn, creates the phenomenon where it can look as if Horsetail Fall on El Capitan is on fire, the valley will get crowded.
A year ago at this time, Yosemite National Park was buried in snow. Chain controls on the park’s roads kept many from visiting. But in the summer, the domestic and international tourist floodgates opened and the park ended up being visited by more than 5 million for the year, mind-boggling by any standard.
Most of those summer visitors jam each day into a 2.5square-mile area on the floor of Yosemite Valley, where finding a parking spot can feel like winning the lottery.
Right now, you can win the lottery just by showing up.
Last week, rangers reopened the Mist Trail from the trailhead at Happy Isles along the Merced River to the top of 317-foot Vernal Fall and Emerald Pool.
On the valley floor, the easy loop to the base of the bottom tier of 2,425-foot Yosemite Falls is snow-free; so, too, is the trail to the base of 617-foot Bridalveil Fall. You can also make the easy walk past Mirror Lake at the base of the face of Half Dome, and beyond along Tenaya Creek.
From Tunnel View along Highway 41 — and at nearby Turtleback Dome (a short trek up from Wawona Road / Highway 41, south of Tunnel View) — you can see beyond Half Dome into the highcountry wilderness. Cloud’s Rest, the 9,931-foot dome on the ridge beyond Half Dome, has a snow layer across its high flank, reflecting bright white from a bright sun.
In the wilderness, at 8,600foot Tuolumne Meadows, wilderness ranger Laura Pilewski sent out a winter update on Thursday. She and her husband, Rob, had just finished a 50-mile cross-country ski trek to survey the wilderness. It put the weather dynamics in perspective.
They measured a settled snow depth of only 12 inches at Tuolumne Meadows (and a high of 36 inches at 9,400-foot Rafferty Meadows, which is always a snow trap). At this time last year, they measured a 95-inch base at Tuolumne Meadows.
“The good news is that we were able to keep our skis on, no walking, for the 50-mile journey,” Laura wrote. “South aspects are mostly bare. East and west aspects are a grab bag of sun and wind-affected snow and bare ground. In general, it is spring skiing in ‘June-uary’ out there.”