Sunrise - Clouds rest - Wild Camping

Saturday we decided to head out of the Valley and back up Tioga Pass towards the eastern entrance to the park. We got to a place called Sunrise and hiked towards Half Dome from there (a 12+ mile hike).

So, 10 miles of hiking to our campsite with full kit (at least 40lbs each). We took in Clouds Rest on the way, which Doug and Alex thought had better views than from the top of half dome. Clouds rest itself is no doddle with a somewhat airy ridgewalk to get to the viewpoint (though not like a UK ridgewalk - much less wind and much drier under foot). Here's Doug at the start of it...



And here's clouds rest from Half Dome later...


And here is the backside of Half Dome looking extremely imtimidating (the rock in the centre of the picture...)


With our first 10 miles done (and a few thousand feet of ascent) we camped near a creek about 2.5 miles from Half Dome, with about an hour of light left. Just enough time to get some water pumped through our filter, get the tents up and get some food on (quite nice dried rations).