Half Dome: Nature’s High Temple

Day Hike to Half Dome from Yosemite Valley Floor :: Apprx 15 miles (11 Hours) starting from Happy Isle via Mist Trail and taking John Muir Trail on the way down.

On the hour the moon still reign upon the thrones of high rise rocks, we left the hostel in Groveland and headed west to the entrance of Yosemite National Park – a very park that prompted the old man John Muir himself to call it “by far the grandest of all the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter.” So here I am for the fifth time in my life and the second time in less than a month, standing on the valley floor of Yosemite Village breathing in early morning dew. I could not be more excited to arrive at Happy Isle Trailhead before dawn to join the first group of hikers plotting the epic ascends from the valley bottom. This is the beginning of the day to complete one of my dream hikes on the list – Half Dome (8,839”).

Coincidentally, this day—May 10^th 2015—counts my 10,000^th day of life since I was brought to this world by my mother – who is the utmost reason why I am here today – and also who I just sent my flowers and love to celebrate the occasion of Mother’s Day which also fell on this Sunday. I cannot say less but the stars has officially aligned to make this dream hike into reality.

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Half Dome is the most recognizable landmark of Yosemite that continues to fascinate hundreds of people who admire its graceful appearance from the distant Glacier Point every day. It is a high rising granite dome that thrusts above the upside down tunnel-shaped Yosemite Valley. Who would have thought about climbing Half Dome’s sheer cliff for the first time? Whoever decided to take the chance must have been either totally crazy or had huge balls to make life’s perspective bit more interesting. Either way, it must not been a person with a regular sense of common.

According to the history book Half Dome was first conquered in 1875 by George G. Anderson; one adventurous Brits expatriate who lived in a cabin just outside of Yosemite Valley. At the time of his expedition, Anderson literally drilled holes on the side of rock as he made his way upward on barefoot (that’s right, he wore no shoes. That’s how adventurous he was). Hence after 1919, the cables are installed to the holes to allow slightly more common people to ascend to the summit. Bravo, G.G.A! Perhaps the most difficult part of Half Dome Trail is the last stretch of up and down on Half Dome’s sibling rock, Sub Dome. You can already see the peaking summit of Half Dome from Sub Dome, but you are not quite there yet – it’s mentally as well as physically challenging as if you are chasing mirage of oasis in the center of desert. So close, yet there’s more way to go. At the end of the trail awaits the mighty 70 degrees incline that can only be overcome by (well, unless you are George G. Anderson level hardcore) the aid of steel cables. Make sure you bring a pairs of gloves with good grips. In case you forget to pack one, don’t panic as there are usually a mound of left behinds that can borrow with free of charge. Half Dome hike is quite demanding to say the least. This is mainly due to (a) steep and unforgiving switchbacks that will mercilessly turn all the “out of shape” excuses to dust, and (b) extremely limited daily cable permit to control the number of hikers to access the otherwise over crowded granite dome. Especially the latter is what keeps many hikers on the latch for that “one day” to conquer this beautiful dome. In this regard, the luck of winning the cable permit on daily lottery is half of the winning factor to summit the epic Half Dome. Although physical part of hiking is strenuous, it is by no mean impossible if you have handful of hiking experiences and guts for the height (←this is actually very important as you have to climb up 1,300 ft along the cliff). This day, I was the one who drew the lucky card and won 2 cable permits that allowed me and my hiking buddy to ascend to the Nature’s high temple.

Looking down on Yosemite Valley from the top of Half Dome (Right Click – “View Image” for Bigger Aspect Ratio ;)).

The path to Half Dome:
The most traditional and reasonable way to hike Half Dome is by backpacking. On the map you can see how the hike can be split into two+ days by camping at Little Yosemite Valley. Little Yosemite Valley that hikers pass through en route to Half Dome Trail is located about 4.5 miles from the Happy Isle Trailhead via Mist Trail and 3.5 miles from Half Dome; camping at Little Yosemite Valley makes the main hike much shorter and manageable to complete without a haste. However, in order to camp at Little Yosemite Valley you will need to acquire special permit (i.e., Wilderness Permit) which is usually in high demand and hard to get. If backpacking is your first choice, you should definitely plan ahead of time and hit the season opening to put your name in the lottery. I will leave the useful links at the bottom of this post to assist you with this. If you have not planned ahead of time, and somewhat spontaneously came across the fortune to challenge Half Dome (which was the case for me this time around) then there is an option to enter the daily lottery for day use permit.
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A view of Half Dome from Glacier Point. I was in Yosemite two weeks prior when the weather condition was different and part of the dome was dressed in powder snow. I wrote more about Glacier Point in this post.

Due to the stint of snow in Yosemite Village, the cables to Half Dome were put up early this year. Though two weeks ago I was in Yosemite with friends and heard the cables are still not up – one week later the news of releasing extra permit was announced and opened up better chance for last minute adventure seekers to acquire permits. The application for extra permits was made available 2 days before the day of hike via Recreation.gov website, and the result was announced through email at midnight (12am) the day after. So I’ve submitted two application on Thursday and Friday hoping to win the permit for Saturday or Sunday – Saturday one was unsuccessful, but fortunately the Sunday permit was approved. Therefore, I virtually had one day to prepare for the hike and drove out to Groveland—a town located outside of Yosemite National Park on the west—on Saturday afternoon to lodge there for a night before hiking early morning on Sunday.

We took the Mist Trail from Happy Isle Trailhead (walking pass the pack of coyotes on the way of course), from there we took the trail up to Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall to the junction where the trail split off to Little Yosemite Valley (basically the whole of yellow and blue route on the map above). Though Half Dome was the main meat of our hike, Mist Trail up to Vernal and Nevada Falls is also beautiful and highly HIGHLY recommended for anyone who is looking to do some quality hike in Yosemite! For the hike back down to the valley floor we took John Muir Trail instead of Mist Trail to see this gorgeous panorama of Nevada Fall, Liberty Cap, and Half Dome in distance. Perfect ending for the long day hike!