To celebrate our third anniversary this year, Kelvin and I headed to Tolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. We didn’t have a permit, but we decided to see what was available anyway. We got in a long line outside the permit station before it opened and hoped for the best. When the station opened, they announced that this year is the most busy the national park service has ever been since they started issuing permits in the 1960s. As we stood in our place in line and waited for everyone ahead of us to sign up for a permit, the places we had hoped to get permits for slowly got marked off the list. By the time the ranger got to us, we really had no idea where we wanted to go. “We are looking for a permit near a lake and mountains” is what we said, and mono pass is what we got. It was kind of fun to leave it to luck. We probably never would have found Mono Pass otherwise.
Before we hit the trails, we picked up some warm breakfast at the grill.
Even though we hardly ran into anyone on the trail, parking at the trailhead was tough to find. Mono Pass is 3.7 miles from the trailhead.
I can’t express how nice it was to get outside again. The trail was not steep at all. The only challenge was the altitude. We climbed above 10,000 ft.
The pass was next to a beautiful lake.
We continued onward to Sardine Lake, where we set up camp.
Kelvin cooled off in the lake after our afternoon nap.
Nothing beats a warm camp meal!
We had a beautiful moonless night, so there were tons of stars. We hiked out at 4 AM under the dark night sky.
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