Monday dawned cold and crisp.  Although it would be quite warm by mid-day, at 10,000 feet the thin atmosphere surrenders much of its heat overnight.

M tried unsuccessfully to catch our breakfast:

We set out fairly early and hiked East from our tent at Lower Young Lake to Middle Young Lake:

We then hiked up a steep draw and looked back at Middle Young Lake:

We then made our way higher up to Upper Young Lake:

Upper Young lake is at 10,400 feet, and is above treeline.  Its surrounding ridge is stark and steep:

From Upper Young Lake, we worked our way Northeast into an alpine valley:

At 10,200 feet, we hiked South out of the valley towards the ridge. Trish and the kids stopped when the climb became steep enough to demand using handholds, at about 10,800 feet.  I summited the ridge at about 11,100 feet.  Here’s the view from the ridge to the South.  I believe that’s Lembert Dome at the right side of the frame:

Looking along the ridge:

The views back towards the valley from which we climbed were spectacular:

Family photo on the way down:

We stopped in the valley to fill our water bottles in the alpine stream.  We used a filtration pump to get rid of any nasties in the water:

We did a bit of fishing at Upper Young Lake on the way back to camp:

Once the fish started biting, it was a frenzy.  Our son pulled in a fish on every 6th cast or so.  We caught and kept four fish, which made a wonderful addition to our dinner:

As we descended towards Middle Young Lake, the smoke from the Rim Fire settled in:

Middle Young Lake reflection with fire haze:

The smoke did make sunset quite spectacular:

Our son took it all in stride:

Hike stats, at least until our device ran out of batteries, are here:

Sunday was the beginning of our three day backpack to Young Lakes.  It took a few hours on Saturday night and most of Sunday morning to get everything packed up, but eventually we were ready to go.  Trish and I were using the same packs we had purchased to backpack to Young Lakes with my parents in ‘99, and the kids were sporting their brand new internal frame packs:

As I watched our son hike towards Cathedral Mountain, I considered the fact that he’s the third generation in our family to do this backpack:

We were hiking towards Young Lakes via the Glen Aulin trail, so we did a quick side trip to soda springs and Parson’s Lodge, a rustic cabin maintained by the Park Service. Our son did a little reading:

We were at nearly 10,000 feet of elevation, and on the climbs our labored breathing reminded us that the air is thinner at these heights:

As we came within a couple miles of Young Lakes, our son said “What’s over that ridge?”, so he and I hiked cross-county to take a look.  The Yosemite Wilderness seems to go on forever:

We caught up with Trish and our daughter and took a break:

Here we are hiking below Ragged Peak, which towers above Young Lakes:

As the sun began to set, we found a nice spot on the Eastern end of the lake to set up our tent.  The view was simply amazing:

The stars that night were amazing.  The glow at the horizon was from the Rim Fire, burning 50 miles away:

Here are our hike stats:

We decided to climb Lembert Dome today.  We hiked out of the campground and across the Tuolumne River where the kids practiced their rock skipping:

Lembert dome in the distance.  We’re going to climb that!

Erratics under The Unicorn (left) and Cathedral Mountain (right):

Seems like we have lots of “taking a break” photographs:

Eventually we cleared the trees and began our ascent of the dome:

Looking West towards Tioga Pass:

At last we summited the dome.  While it wasn’t too steep where we were standing, the dome falls away to sheer cliffs in all directions except the way we came up, so an unarrested fall would have a fatal outcome.  Several times we sat down to settle our shaking knees.

The massive Rim Fire could be seen in the West.  Some days, when the winds blew our way, the air would smell of smoke and visibility would be half a mile or so.  Pretty amazing considering it was 50 miles away:

Tuolumne meadows from the summit:

We all breathed a sign of relief when we came down off the dome.  We came down via the Eastern trail to Tuolumne Lodge.  Then it’s a dusty hike back to the campground:

Here are our hike stats: