You see, the Tioga road closes for winter when the first snowfall hits...and it stays closed, usually until sometime in June. That means its only open for approximately four months. I felt the pressure on this entire trip of getting there before that first snowfall, and, as luck would have it, I made it. The high country of Yosemite is traversed by the Tioga Road...and while there are only a few, but spectacular things to see along the highway, it is the starting point of many, many hiking trails that take you back into some of the most beautiful country on this planet.
And I have seen no small amount of it during my younger days. Part of every summer was spent up here with my parents and brother when I was growing up. I used to drive them crazy as I would take off on my own to far away places that were named on trail head signs...places with romantic names like Lukens Lake, Harden Lake, Ten Lakes, Smith Meadows, May Lake and many others. I hiked them all when I whenever I could, anxious to see where these trails led and what was over the next hill. I couldn't stop myself from heading down a trail in these fantastic mountains. I used to stare at topographical maps of Yosemite to see all the lakes and mountains and wondered what they looked like. This sense of wonder and exploration is an important part of who I am.
The sad part of this trip was that most of the places that I knew so well were closed off for winter and I could not visit them. But I made the best of my two days visiting accessible places like Tuolumne Meadows, Lembert Dome, Tenaya Lake, and Olmstead Point. I saw portions of the old Tioga Road and wondered how my father could successfully navigate such a terrible tiny road in his Buick. I thought of my dear college friend Len who loved these mountains as much as me. Oddly enough,I feel his spirit whenever I am in Yosemite. He was killed by a mortar attack in Vietnam, one night before he was to leave. 
Tuolumne Meadows was sad as the Tuolumne River was almost nonexistent and the meadows were all brown. I had only seen them in the past when they were green. Lembert Dome was bigger than I remembered and I had forgotten how much of the high country was shaped liked domes from the past glaciers. Tenaya Lake was so beautiful, full of water and surrounded by so many giant granite domes and mountains. And from Olmstead Point, you could look down the Tenaya Canyon and see Cloud's Rest and the north side of Half Dome. On another day I would see Half Dome from the valley and from high up at Glacier Point where I could look the other way up the Tenaya Canyon.
When I crossed Yosemite Creek, it was completely dry. This creek, fed by melting snow and glaciers, becomes the spectacular Yosemite Falls, one of the highlights of any trip to Yosemite. I've seen it when it was full, and now, I would see it later completely dry.
The sad thing, at least photography wise, was that there were again absolutely no clouds in the sky, so my photos on these two days lack the real "punch" that clouds can provide on occasion. Irregardless, I enjoyed my time there and my memories of the past. The first photo shows Tenaya Lake...the second is a view of Tenaya Lake in the lower foreground with the beautiful Yosemite granite peaks behind it...the farthest being Mount Conness. Finally, the third picture shows part of Tuolumne Meadows with Lembert Dome in the background.
At the end of my first day in the High Country, I headed up and over Tioga Pass and down to my camp site at 7,500 feet for yet another freezing night. On this evening, I am proud that I didn't use my ski mask, but it was still down to around 25 degrees. The next morning I got up, made breakfast, broke camp, and decided to camp the next night in Yosemite Valley where the low night time temperature was a balmy 44.
Three days after my visit, the first snows came and the Tioga Road closed for the season. I cut it close, but I did it.
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