Day 19. Lots of Lovely Trail. July 9, 2016.

6am to 6:20pm. Blue Lake to Rafferty Creek, 4 miles out from Tuolumne Meadows. 19 miles.

I woke to the best sunrise of the trip.

Looking back down on where we camped between the lakes.

Blue Lake Pass was one of the easiest of the off trail passes. Except for one icy snow chute it was all grassy ramps and easy boulders. The way down was over bigger boulders but was easy compared to others.

Down we go.

Then we had easy walking until we intersected a trail. We stayed on trail the rest of the day.

Where is that trail?

View south from just before Vogelsang Pass

Vogelsang Lake

We got to Vogelsang High Sierra Camp about 4. It hasn’t opened for the year and the tent cabins hadn’t even been set up. It was still interesting for me to see it. In 1946, when my mother was 16, she along with her father and brother backpacked 60 miles in Yosemite. They camped at the High Sierra Camps and occasionally had meals there. My mother has talked glowingly about this hike for my whole life. I heard a new story last week when I told my mother that I would be passing by Vogelsang. This was one of her favorite camps.  She remembers a young girl there who was learning all the names of wildflowers. My mother thought it would be great to someday have a daughter like that. Last week she told me “and I guess I got my wish.”

The white speck I am pointing to is Vogelsang High Sierra Camp

Vogelsang High Sierra Camp. The frames for the tent cabins are still on the ground.