May Lake and Mount Hoffman
My partner, a few friends and I went to May Lake in Yosemite a couple weeks after our Ansel Adams adventure. The plan was to start at May Lake and hike down into the valley, but alas, our plans were foiled by the up-and-coming Oak Fire of 2022. Day one, there were blue skies, minus a big ‘ol plume of smoke from not too far away. They gave me a quick tour of the valley, then we drove up to May Lake and hiked the mile or so to the lake itself. I made an attempt at Mount Hoffman, but it was a bit too late in the evening, so I stopped before the shield near the top. I got up early the next morning and made it to the summit, but had to book it down since the smoke from the fire was spreading insanely fast thanks to some inopportune winds. We tried to start our actual route down into the valley, but the smoke thickened to the point we were worried about our health, so we turned around and left.
The initial plume of smoke from the Yosemite Valley Vista Point. It waned in the evening and cleared up by early morning, but came back with a vengeance as the day progressed.
El Capitan.
Mount Hoffman around 5am or 6am, as seen from the edge of May Lake.
May Lake from above, with our campsite just visible in the bottom right corner.
Facing east from above May Lake, the distinctive shape of Cathedral Peak (I think) visible in the distance.
From closer to the summit; those two juts aren't actually the summit, as they're about 10m shorter than the true one hidden to the west/left.
Change from dirt to rocky trail.
Hitting the shield near the summit; at this point, I turned left. Gotta love how quickly clouds can appear and disappear in the mountains.
A kind of distorted panorama from to the left of the shield, with Half-Dome and the slowly spreading smoke visible. The true summit of Mount Hoffman is just off-screen to the right.
Looking back from near the summit towards the sub-peaks of Mount Hoffman, as well as some very fast moving smoke.
Back to where the first panorama was taken, about a 5-minute run from the summit, and Half-Dome is already invisible under the smoke.
One of our final views of Mount Hoffman with the smoke finally reaching us in earnest.
