Gaylord Lakes

This morning we drove up to Tioga Pass, the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park to hike up to the Gaylord Lakes, around each one, and a bit above to the mine ruins. Overall our hike was 4.5 miles with 1,100 ft gain. This was a beautiful hike, we didn't see anyone else on the trail until we were back down at Middle Gaylord Lake.

The trail climbs 600 ft in 0.4 miles up to a ridge, here the view towards the southeast of other peaks in Yosemite,

and a view to the west of Middle Gaylord Lake.

We descended about 200 ft down to Middle Gaylord Lake and began to hike counterclockwise part way around this lake.

Views around Middle Gaylord Lake

zoom of some of the Yosemite Peaks across the lake in the far distance.

We then took the trail up to Upper Gaylord Lake, 

Looking back at the peaks in the distance.

We hiked up past Gaylord Peak

We also hiked counterclockwise around Upper Gaylord Lake, here are some views

About half way around the lake, we hiked up the trail towards the ruins, some views looking around as we went up.

First of the ruins

view through a window in the ruins, looking back down at Gaylord Peak and Gaylord Lakes

We continued up the trail to see more of the ruins and the surrounding area.

This is probably a mine shaft. We were at 10.800 ft up here.

Looking down in the opposite direction of the Gaylord Lakes

We then hiked back down to Upper Gaylord Lake,

and continued to circle the lake.

Last look at Upper Gaylord Lake

Hiking back down to Middle Gaylord Lake

Views as we continued the loop around Middle Gaylord Lake

We then hiked back to the ridge and down to the trailhead. Views looking down from the ridge to the south and Mount Dana across Tioga Pass.

 

Lembert Dome, Loop Trail and Dog Lake

We drove to the Young Lakes Trailhead in Tuolomne Meadows in Yosemite National Park to do a loop hike around Lembert Dome, to Dog Lake and up Lembert Done. We did the loop clockwise starting on the Dog Lake Trail fr 4.5 miles and 835 ft of gain. View of the lower part of Lembert Dome from near the trailhead.

Early on the trail went through the meadow where we saw these peaks. 

zoom of the peaks

Most of the trail was in the woods.

Dog Lake was 0.3 miles one way off of our loop route. View of Dog Lake

By the time we had reached the side trail up Lembert Dome, we had already done most of the gain. 

I like this long flat section on the dome, fabulous views!

Views up on the ledge

zoom of some peaks

Getting closer to the top, high above the meadows

I made it up to where the rock turns the lighter color,

and around to the side, before deciding I wasn't comfortable going up to the tippy top.

After coming down from Lembert Dome we hiked down to the Dog Lake Trailhead, walked through the parking lot, then follow the Pacific Crest Trail and John Muir Trail for less than a mile back to our original trailhead. 

Most of this was in the woods parallel to the road.

We did go through the meadow for a while with views of some peaks.

Lower portion of Lembert Dome as we neared the parking lot at the trailhead.

L