Note: Tuolumne Meadow is a major attraction at North Yosemite.
By the time we reached Tuolumne meadow, it was already well
into the afternoon and the clouds were gathering above our heads. The 7-mile
trip to Cathedral lake was out of the question. So we decided to give the
shortest trail a try, 2.8 mile loop to Lembert dome with an elevation gain of
850 feet. The first section of the trail was 0.7 mile of steep uphill. After a
few minutes on the trail, Allan decided to back down. He was really tired with
a headache after several hours of driving on the forever winding road in the
mountain. To make sure he’d be able to drive us back to Yosemite Valley, it’s
better for him to rest a while. Nicholas decided to stay and “protect” his dad.
So Justin and I charged on.
The steep uphill was no match to what we did at Nevada Fall
two days ago. We kept a fairly steady speed. Fifteen minutes later we heard
loud thunder and felt a few splutters of rain. We decided to go forward for
another ten minutes while watching the weather. The rain drops were on and off
and I saw people ahead of us. So we continued. Soon we reached a rather flat
path into the woods. It’s hard to see where the road was leading and where the
Lembert dome was. “I hope it’s not just a trail circling the dome” I said to
Justin half jokingly. Then we reached at a fork with an arrow pointing the
uphill route to Lembert dome. Following the path we arrived at the foot of a
giant rock.
Thunder continued to threaten us, but we were emboldened by
several groups of people on the rock. We easily climbed up the lower portion of
the dome and reached a plateau. The peak of the dome soared in front of us. Like
many other domes in Yosemite, it’s a granite formation with one steep side and
dome shaped on other sides. The easiest path going up was at least in a 50
angle above the ground, by my estimate. “Are we going up there?” I asked Justin
in an incredulous voice. “Of course! I’m going.” With that he was on the rock.
I took out my camera and captured a few shots of him in action taking the steepest
path up to the peak. Soon he disappeared behind the crack and out of my sight.
I hesitated, and then decided to give it a try. Taking the easiest route, I
inched my way up. It was not as hard as I had thought. Using both hands and
feet I had a good grip on the rock. However after climbing a quarter of the way
up, I was blocked by a steep step. I considered my options, and decided to
throw my backpack up the step then pulled myself up. After several maneuvers I
joined Justin at the top of Lembert Dome. The wind was blowing; the sky was
covered with dark clouds. The Tuolumne meadow spread under my view, I could
only imagine what it would look like if it were on a sunny day. We saw the
cathedral peak, its unique symmetrical form was easy to spot and hence its
name. Darkened by the heavy clouds it looked grave. Justin was holding up his
camera trying to capture a grand shot of the lightening. Fortunately he agreed
this was not a place to linger in this weather. We needed to get down.
We packed everything other than the cameras in my backpack
and planned to drop it step by step. But at the first drop, Justin let go of
the backpack before it sat steadily, and the backpack started to roll down the
slope all the way to the bottom of the dome, towards a group of people taking
pictures down there. We loudly yelled to get their attention. Thankfully they
heard us and stopped the backpack for us. Without that burden, getting down was
much easier. We took caution so we wouldn’t roll down ourselves down, like the
backpack. By the time we got down the dome it was only a little over one hour and
15 minutes since we had separated from the rest of the family.
We took the path leading to the closest parking lot hoping
to catch a shuttle that would transport us to where our car was parked. There
were no cell phone signals in the area, and therefore no chance to ask Allan to
drive over. A drizzle had started. We quickened our footsteps passing a group
of young men. When we reached the parking lot we saw a shuttle that had just turned
and left. The next one would come in half an hour; we’d get back faster if we
walked the way. The drizzle had become a steady light rain. We took out our
rain jackets and headed to our car. As we made the last turn to the parking lot
the rain drops were getting bigger and bigger. We ran! Allan and Nicholas were
surprised to see us back so fast, after only one hour and forty minutes.
Allan had his nap, Justin and I felt refreshed, and Nicholas
took more pictures of deer and studied all the trail maps. Together we headed
back to our camp site at Yosemite Valley.
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