Tuolumne River

Posted here are a few photos from my backpacking adventure to the grand canyon of the Tuolumne River last year . My intended adventure was to be a 70 mile loop , starting and finishing at the Tuolumne Meadows ( located above Yosemite Valley ) . However due to injuries I was not able to complete same . Anyway I hope that you enjoy these photos made during the two days of this trip . We passed several water falls that made the trail very loud and spectacular . The water fall with the blue pool at the base of same in Glenn Aulin located about 6 miles from the Tuolumne Meadows . We camped at the frost covered meadow located another 6 miles past Glenn Aulin . The girl in the swim wear was swimming in the ice cold waters of the water falls . I included two photos that need more explanation . One is my partner Wayne building a fire as I think he an expert at making a fire on the trail under any circumstances , note how small the fire is started , He takes pride in using only one match ! The other photo is the horse back rider , he is a ranger . Great job if you can get it !! For more information on this hike see the Yosemite High Country Trail Map from Tom Harrison Maps .

Cerro Alto -- pretty images

Haven't posted in a while so I am posting some interesting and pretty images om Cerro Alto ( located on hwy 41 west of Atascadero Ca. ) . All are self explainable except the tracks in the rain . It is raining season now and I love hiking in the rain and so do the wild life . I met a man hiking in the rain , we were the only two on the mountain , we met traveling opposite directions we said hello and continued on our way . It was pouring and I was enjoying his foot tracks on the ground ( my thought was our the only tracks because of the heavy rain ) a few yards after passing him I saw these cat tracks on top of his foot prints . All washed away within a hour or so . They were completely gone upon my return down the mountain . I find this really fascinating as I have come upon a situation like this several times in the past while hiking in the rain ! Note that there are two images of these tracks -- one is a close up image . The planes I found interesting because they were so low and large I am told that they are C130 and used for carrying troops and tanks etc.

night animal shots

I taught you might enjoy some night photos I took with a infra red camera in the Pozo Area . The quality is very poor but fun . The cougar shots were all far away from the camera and the jack rabbit , coyote , grey fox are close to the camera . Since I had to crop in all photos , size is deceptive . The cougars were really far from the camera but this cat is a mature animal with his back approximately 2 and 1/2 ft. high , it weighs approx . 165 lbs . I know this because I took some measurements of items in this are for comparison and used Adobe photo shop grid method to establish size .I have now seen several cougars both dead and alive in the field and now have a pretty good working knowledge of them . I have also photographed and measured dozens of cat tracks , both cougar and bob cat . The fox is a Grey Fox and is much larger than the red fox . The Coyote is large in this area about the size of a large dog .The jack rabbits are of average size and I was surprised to see them in this area as I have never seen them in the daylight here . ???? Note Golden Eagles abound in this area !!


 

sierras view

This is a rare view of Mount Whitney as seen from the top of Cerro Alto . This mountain is 14495 ft high and is located 172 miles and 50 degrees N/E of Cerro Alto . Most of the time you can not see these mountains due to the fog or smog in the valley . Today is a good day because it rained this past week in January 2011 . Sorry for the small image on this blog . If you ever climb Cerro Alto , take a compass and shoot a bering 58 degrees N/E and just and you will know where this mountain is .
Atascadero is located below Mt Whitney in this photo. As you can see , the sierras are snow capped now .With binoculars you can see these mountains and her canyons !!
Enjoy !
Cerro Alto is located in San Luis Obispo Co. weswt of Atascadero Ca.