7/14/11 Lembert Dome
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite, CA
On July 14, 2011, Holly and I were leaving Yosemite National Park. We had planned to drive the Tioga Pass and then head North and visit The Devil's Postpile National Monument. We had no idea how long it would take to drive Tioga or get to the Devil's Postpile once we made it through the pass. By midday it appeared that we were making very good time, and it was then that we came to the Tuolumne Meadows area. I had read several trail descriptions about Lembert Dome and since we had time I suggested we hike it. Holly agreed to the hike so we pulled over and parked in the crowded Dog Lake/Young Lakes parking lot.
The parking lot has several bathrooms and several bear boxes. You must store any food or smelly items (sunscreen, deodorant, toothpaste, etc) in the bear boxes and leave nothing at all visible in your car. This is true for all of Yosemite National Park. If a ranger walks by your car and sees an item in it, you get a ticket and can even have your vehicle towed. The black bears in Yosemite have become very skilled at opening cars to retrieve food so nothing that even remotely looks like food can be left out. The rangers and the bears don't lay around...
We started the hike through a small grass meadow that gave us excellent views of Unicorn Peak and Cathedral Rock. Once through the meadow the trail began to climb. The trail gains 900 feet in 1.4 miles. By East Coast standards that's steep, but not too bad. When starting at 8,500' above sea level and not being well-adjusted to the altitude, it's a lung-busting, calf-burning, trek. We walked slowly, breathing heavily. I had to stop numerous times because I simply could not breathe.
Once we reached the base of the dome the ground leveled off and there was a large lake against the dome. This lake is formed by snow melt each summer. In fact, we had hiked through some snow on the trail on the way here. We were amazed to see snow in the middle of July. The trail continued around the lake to the rear of the dome. From here it's a class 3 scramble to the summit. From the top of the dome there is are excellent views of Tuolumne Meadows to the west, the Cathedral Range to the south, and the Sierra crest to the east.
Also from the summit I realized I was on the top of Dog Dome, not Lembert Dome. We had to go back down to the trail and continue hiking a few hundred yards to get to Lembert Dome. Unfortunately the altitude severely slowed our hiking pace and we decided we didn't have time to go to the top of Lembert Dome if we wanted to see the Devil's Postpile, so we hiked back down to the parking area and continued East along the Tioga Pass. The summit of Lembert Dome would have to wait until our next trip to Yosemite.
The parking lot has several bathrooms and several bear boxes. You must store any food or smelly items (sunscreen, deodorant, toothpaste, etc) in the bear boxes and leave nothing at all visible in your car. This is true for all of Yosemite National Park. If a ranger walks by your car and sees an item in it, you get a ticket and can even have your vehicle towed. The black bears in Yosemite have become very skilled at opening cars to retrieve food so nothing that even remotely looks like food can be left out. The rangers and the bears don't lay around...
We started the hike through a small grass meadow that gave us excellent views of Unicorn Peak and Cathedral Rock. Once through the meadow the trail began to climb. The trail gains 900 feet in 1.4 miles. By East Coast standards that's steep, but not too bad. When starting at 8,500' above sea level and not being well-adjusted to the altitude, it's a lung-busting, calf-burning, trek. We walked slowly, breathing heavily. I had to stop numerous times because I simply could not breathe.
Once we reached the base of the dome the ground leveled off and there was a large lake against the dome. This lake is formed by snow melt each summer. In fact, we had hiked through some snow on the trail on the way here. We were amazed to see snow in the middle of July. The trail continued around the lake to the rear of the dome. From here it's a class 3 scramble to the summit. From the top of the dome there is are excellent views of Tuolumne Meadows to the west, the Cathedral Range to the south, and the Sierra crest to the east.
Also from the summit I realized I was on the top of Dog Dome, not Lembert Dome. We had to go back down to the trail and continue hiking a few hundred yards to get to Lembert Dome. Unfortunately the altitude severely slowed our hiking pace and we decided we didn't have time to go to the top of Lembert Dome if we wanted to see the Devil's Postpile, so we hiked back down to the parking area and continued East along the Tioga Pass. The summit of Lembert Dome would have to wait until our next trip to Yosemite.
