Cloud's Rest

Climbing the half dome in Yosemite National park is a popular hike which I did a few times in 1990s and the early 2000s, after which the park introduced a permitting system, making it harder to go on a spontaneous trip to climb the iconic dome.

Three years ago, I had discovered the Cloud’s Rest hike, which is at an even higher elevation than Half Dome and had hiked it with a couple of friends. It was quite a grueling hike, culminating at almost 10,000 feet in height, nearly 24 miles long round-trip with 6,600 feet altitude gain. Remembering that it was difficult, I did not reattempt it until July 2024, fully expecting it to be even harder this time around.

In the past, we had started from the Bay Area at 4 AM, reaching Yosemite Valley by 7:30 AM to commence the hike. This time, we tried a different approach. On a Saturday afternoon, we started driving towards Yosemite and snagged a reservation at the tent camps in the Curry Village.

It was great to see that almost 700 well maintained tents with warm beds, blankets, as well as electricity were available, right in the wilderness — the bear country. Each tent had a bear safe container outside and occupants were expected to keep all their food in it. Bear attacks were the resident’s responsibility, and they could get fined if a bear destroyed the tent to reach in to grab the food.

The forest rangers even had a stark warning illustrating the havoc wreaked by bears in the past.

The weather and the views at the valley were very pleasant, and the river, the giant rocks, the trees added to the peaceful setting with the huge granite mountains in the backdrop.

After having a meal at the curry village and enjoying the solitude, we retired with a plan to wake at 5am for a 6am departure.

Everything went according to plan, and we were on the trail bright and early. After a mile of hiking, we came to the board showing various trails and ploughed ahead.

The trail did not disappoint. We were instantly in the serene high sierras, with towering trees, sounds of streams of water, rocks and boulders, reminders of recent storms and the anticipation of the long, punishing hike ahead.

Out of nowhere, the dark rainclouds gathered, and it started raining really hard, accompanied by thunder and lightning. We were unprepared for it, as the forecast did not call for rain. We stopped under a rock overhang but started getting wet.

My friend wondered aloud if we could finish the hike as the dark clouds looked very foreboding. I was thinking the same but had not verbalized it until then. It is very easy for the mind to look for ways out of a hard undertaking, so I generally avoid having these thoughts or vocalizing them out loud. But now, my friend had opened the door for a graceful (?) exit. Luckily, after half hour, the storm abated, we resumed walking and even dried up a bit. The views were awesome by now and our clothes had almost dried up.

We came to the majestic Vernal Falls, and its ferocious volume of gushing water was a sight to behold. We continued walking up the steep uphill with the wet rocky stairs and the storm returned. It was coming down with full force and we decided to keep on walking. In another half hour, the rain stopped, the clouds started clearing and we heaved a sigh of relief.

By now, we were over the point of no return, having withstood two stormy downpours. With strong spirits, we marched on, literally soaking up the surrounding beauty.

The half dome was visible at a distance and the fluffy clouds were not threatening at all.

We came to the spot where the routes split, one heading to Half Dome, while the other culminating in our destination, the Cloud's Rest. We had walked 7.5 miles from our starting point by now.

A lone deer was hiding in the trees, and we stopped to admire it and continued.

A side view of the half dome became visible, and we gazed at it for a while before resuming our remaining final couple of miles ascent. The walk was more strenuous now and the treeline was disappearing.

At long last, the summit was in sight. It was a small rocky peak of solid granite. It was heartening to see that we were very close and still going strong.

The views of the Sierras at this point were amazing.

A ptarmigan was watching us from a distance.

So was a raven...

The peak was literally a stone's throw away.

We persevered through the hard climb, with ebbing energy levels, and finally made it to the summit and saw the USGS survey marker.

The various mountain peaks from the summit looked awesome.

The Half Dome was also visible and was more than a thousand feet below us.

Tenaya lake was seen from another side of the peak.

We rested for a half hour, enjoyed the snacks we had brought with us and started the descent.

As we descended, we met a backpacker who was returning to civilization. He said the weather the prior day was much more ugly than today. He also gave us the bad news that a girl climbing Half Dome yesterday slipped and fell to her death. It was quite heartbreaking and sobering to hear the news and then later reading about it here.

After steadily walking for three hours, we came to the Bridalveil falls. It was a great time to sit and peacefully soak in the waters, let all the stress and tiredness melt away. From there, it was half hour walk back to the valley and another half hour to our car. We had completed the demanding hike, weathered two storms and fared much better than the last time we did it three years ago. We had also earned a big meal!