North Dome, Not the North Pole

North Dome Trailhead: Porcupine Creek Trailhead, off of Tioga Rd / Hwy 120
Distance: ~9 miles. Slightly downhill on way out and then uphill on the way back. The end of this hike take you onto granite slopes and it is probably best if you wear some shoes with traction & not your foam Tevas like I did.

North dome is a much easier hike then Half Dome, which is good when you are like Curtis and I, and don’t start hiking until sometime in the afternoon. I mean the park is nice and all, but we like to sleep in, eat some breakfast, and get in a game of frisbee golf on the Wii ;)

We took our sweet time hiking, seeing the ground squirrel burrow and the eating lunch/dinner sheltered away from the wind at the top of the dome.  Some old book I had borrowed from the library claimed that the hike wasn’t going to be all too crowded was fairly wrong, but it was a nice hike with the better crowd of day hikers than what you sometimes have to deal with at the most popular locations in Yosemite.

North Dome, you can see is from the valley to the front left of Half dome, is a high quality place to be all in all. The hike has only one section here you wonder if you fell wrong if you would die, and the view of Half dome at the top is much more amazing than the one seen in the valley.

If you have trouble veiwing the images above check out the alternative gallery here