| To be completely candid, I don't know what the heck I was thinking.
While driving over the Tioga Pass I got this brilliant idea to hike to
the top of Mount Dana.
The mountain is said to be the 2nd highest in Yosemite at 13,053'
elevation above sea level. Others proclaim the views are "jaw dropping"
and the geology is "fascinating". Good grief, the thing is a big boring
and homely rubble pile. The only real value I got from the hike was some
much needed fresh air and exercise.
What was I thinking?
The round trip is a little over six miles and the elevation to the
summit is about 3,000 feet with an average 21% grade over sparsely
populated use trails among the rocks. The trail head has no sign and it
is just across the street from the Tioga Pass entry station on Highway
120. It starts out okay, a couple of small lakes and a trail that looks
like, well, a trail.
Small lake at the beginning of the hike
After a half mile or so the trail begins to ascend rapidly and the
most homely mountain in Yosemite comes into view. I stopped in my tracks
and pondered the thought of finding something else to do, but what the
heck I said and off I went.
Mount Homely, er, Dana
Oddly I was moving rather quickly for an old dog. Really not much to
do on this hike except place one foot in front of the other and repeat.
I could see one other hiker ahead of me. Soon enough I was at
11,000' on the area known as the plateau.
Big rock pile on the "plateau" around 11,000'
Do you imagine some guys sitting around a campfire in Tuolumne
drinking beer and getting the idea to run up to 11k to build a rock
pile? Am I missing something here? Anyway, back to the homely mountain
story in progress.
So I catch up to the other hiker. Her name is Anina, she's from San
Francisco. After a little chat I start upward while she continues on
with her break. The use trail meanders over to the east side of the
mountain where there is a bit of a cliff. At least some redeeming view
was had at this point.
Rubble pile meets cliff
After another mind numbing 1,000 feet or so I was on the summit.
Anina showed up five or ten minutes later. While I snapped photo's,
Anina popped open the summit register box and read thru the many pages
of stuff.
Mono Lake from the summit
Smoke blurred most of the distant views, but Mono Lake was kind of
cool to see. Frankly I thought the rest of the views were a bit ho-hum.
A pano looking south-east (Mammoth Ski area can be
seen on the left, etc.)
Well I had about as much excitement as I could handle
for the day so I bid Anina goodbye and headed down the rubble pile. As I
reached the plateau I crossed paths with another hiker. It was a woman
who had asked me the proverbial "how much further" question. The
question was fair enough but her oversized backpack caught my attention.
I actually looked back up over my shoulder as though I had missed seeing
Mount Everest or something. She explained that she was preparing for a
Sierra Club outing and "they have you fill out a bunch of forms showing
how much experience you have and...". Oh brother. Poor woman was on her
very first hike on a rubble pile with an overloaded expedition pack to
please the Sierra Club czars. I only hope she made it up and down
without incident.
Anyway, soon enough I was back at the car and wondering
"what was I thinking"?
The only joy I had was seeing this trailer full of
people being towed around Yosemite while a ranger spoke to them in a
Pope-mobile getup. Is this really the best way to enjoy the great
outdoors?
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