Winter is coming (we hope): my last excursion to Tioga Pass?

Walking on a frozen Gaylor Lake, January 16, 2012As my dad and I drove through the Arch Rock entrance station in Yosemite yesterday, we viewed something that had become so unusual recently that it took us a moment to identify it. “Is that snow?” I asked the ranger at the gate. Granted it was a pretty weak snowfall, as if someone was occasionally sprinkling confectionary sugar, but we can’t be too picky in the Sierra these days. The clouds followed us to Crane Flat and beyond, and some of the trees and granite peaks glowed with a light dusting of snow against the gray clouds. At Olmsted point, the blue skies emerged, but Tenaya Peak boasted some white highlights on his granite face.

Gaylor Lake (photo by Beth Pratt)“Winter is coming,” is a catch phrase on one of my favorite shows, Game of Thrones. It’s a mantra we have been uttering here in the Sierra Nevada, yet less emphatically than Ned Stark. The California version: “Winter is coming? Isn’t it?”

The record-breaking delay in closing Tioga Pass and the access to Tuolumne and Yosemite’s high country in winter has been marvelous. Being on the Dana Plateau in January or walking across a frozen Tenaya Lake is not an experience usually attainable for those of us who are not good backcountry skiers. Yet these rare opportunities come with a price tag—a disruption of the water cycle so central to California that the decreased snowpack reverberates with implications for all life in the state. We’ll hope skating on frozen Tenaya Lake (or taking beautiful wedding photos on the ice—check out this photo by Patrick Pike Studios) remains an once-in-a-lifetime experience that we tell our grandchildren about.

With one of the ghost trees in the middle of Tenaya LakeSo the dusting of snow made me hopeful. And the forecast for more snow and rain later in the week may put an end to my winter wanderings at 12,000 feet (it’s just unreal that I have been hiking—yes—hiking at this elevation in winter), yet the Sierra needs a long, sustained drink of water. As I hike around the Gaylor Lake basin yesterday, I found the the lack of snow and the parched landscape unnerving. In my twenty years of exploring Yosemite, I had never seen this area look so, well, just plain thirsty. The white gleam of ice from frozen Gaylor Lake contrasted sharply, like a mismatched outfit, against the adjacent brown, bare landscape.

(On a related note, the other glaring absence from the Tioga landscape has been the Mobil Station being closed. Do you know how hard it is to drive over the pass without being able to stop for a fish taco at the Whoa Nellie Deli or  talk baseball with Chef Toomey?)

Tuolumne River and Lembert Dome (photo by Beth Pratt)Even the lakes seemed to be lamenting against the current lack of snow—in song. One of the most wonderful discoveries of this late access to the high country has been the music of the lakes. On my first visit to frozen Tenaya Lake when the road reopened in December, I stood on the west shore and listened in amazement to the voice of the lake—it resembled the mysterious moanings of whale song. Gaylor Lake sang a melancholy song as well, with Cathedral Peak listening sympathetically in the distance.

Will this be my last adventure this winter in Tioga Country? As splendid as it’s been, let’s hope so. Winter, you better be coming!

Some alarming comparision photos:

Tuolumne Meadows (photos by Beth Pratt)

Gaylor Lake Basin (photos by Beth Pratt)

Dana Meadows (photos by Beth Pratt)

How Seeing a Northern Goshawk in Yosemite Finally Made Me a Birder

Northern Goshawk near Tioga Pass in Yosemite on 1/8/12 (Photo by Beth Pratt)I have always resisted joining the ranks of the official birders. I am more a charismatic mega-fauna kind of gal (with the exception of frogs—my favorite critter), and wolves and bears and other mammals have always appealed to me more than the elusive creatures flying overhead.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy viewing birds in the wild, but I didn’t want to do that whole life list thing or have to download birdcalls on my ipod and have them pop up in between U2 and Mumford and Sons at parties. And identifying birds is so complicated! You don’t have to study too much to identify a wolf or bear in the wild, but birds change their plumages more often than a model at a fashion show. My repertoire has always been manageable, consisting of knowing the Clark’s Nutcracker, American Robin, and calling any raptor I saw a red-tailed hawk, knowing I’d be correct the majority of the time. Oh, and bluebirds—those are pretty easy as well. When I lived in Yellowstone, bird identification was a little easier because they were all so big (swans and pelicans are pretty recognizable), but learning the endless species of songbirds in California is akin to figuring out programming code.

Last weekend, however, my aversion to becoming a birder finally dissipated with the help of a seeing a really cool raptor soar overhead while I was hiking in Yosemite, the Northern Goshawk. Of course I had no clue it was a northern goshawk as I snapped photos. My usual procedure as a naturalist is to take photo notes, then send them off to my birder friends for an ID.

The bird that made me a birder (photo by Beth Pratt)

This time I posted my photos on my Facebook page and tagged my ornithologically inclined friends for an ID. I also posted the photo on the National Wildlife Federation's California Facebook page, Audubon, California’s Facebook page, and my friend Rue Mapp, founder of Outdoor Afro, forwarded it to her network of birders.

I loved witnessing the enthusiasm for this bird as my photos raced across the social networks. First, it was fun to read the various debates about identifying it, but it was equally great to see the excitement this raptor generated. The photos even caught the eye of the wonderful organization, The Wild Bird Trust, and I now have an album on their Facebook page.

Hmm. This reminded me of when I posted a photo of wolf when I lived in Yellowstone! (absent discussions about color morphs and tail feathers and without mentions of elk carcasses).

After reading about this ferocious hawk, I quickly saw what all the excitement was about (and think he might be an even match for a wolf as far as hunting skills). Ted Beedy and Stephen Granholm write in Discovering Sierra Birds, “If approached too closely, these largest and most powerful of North American Accipiters will defend their nesting territories like demons. They peer down at intruders with defiant red eyes and fly boldly at their targets with talons spread.” The authors also tell of a goshawk hopping on a lake for over an hour in pursuit of Mallard ducklings—it caught three. David Lukas, in his Sierra Nevada Birds, observes that it’s rare to view this hawk from November to February, and also tells of the birds being quite prolific in mating—pairs may copulate up to 500 times in one season! I had no idea such a lover AND a fighter had soared above me last weekend as I hiked to the Dana Plateau near Tioga Pass.

A lover and a fighter (Photo by Beth Pratt)

So for my birding friends, who I had always poked fun at for their obsessions, I have finally come over to the dark side. Pete Devine, Jack Laws, Joe Medley (and his late father and my friend, Steve Medley), David Lukas, Paul Gallez and others, I am now joining your ranks and will carry a life list while hiking, buy a new pair of fancy binoculars, and be as religious about attending birding festivals as a Trekkie is about not missing Star Trek conferences.

Mr. Snow Miser, Yosemite and the Sierra Need You! A Very Dry Hike on the Dana Plateau

Dana Plateau and Mt Dana on January 8, 2012 (Photo by Beth Pratt)We need the Snow Miser in the Sierra!Remember the Snow Miser? In the cartoon, The Year Without A Santa Claus, he and his brother, the Heat Miser, battled over the weather. In a memorable ragtime song and dance routine the Snow Miser exclaimed, “whatever I touch turns to snow in my clutch!”

While I was wandering around Dana Plateau this weekend and gazing at the alarmingly dry landscape in Yosemite and the Sierra, I figured out the solution to this snowless winter. We need the Snow Miser to pay a visit to California! He’ll fix everything.

(The Rankin/Bass reference explained-I am GenXer and their cartoons defined my childhood—along with the Brady Bunch. Heck, maybe we should call in Mike Brady as well. He solved every problem.)

Here’s a video diary I made of my hike with some good views of the surrounding, almost snowless mountains.

While visiting the plateau on this hike—the latest I had ever accessed it—the lack of water and snow attested to how radical a departure from normal this “Marchuary,” (as I have heard it dubbed) is for the Sierra. The creek that flows out of the plateau was bone dry, leaving a sandy bed exposed for the first time in who knows how many years. This summer I had made multiple trips up here in August and September, and the area contained more snowcover then! When I arrived back home, I checked my photos from the latest in the fall I had made to the plateau before this hike (November 4, 2009) and viewed a winter landscape, much earlier in the year.

Dry creek bed on the Dana Plateau (photo by Beth Pratt)

The Dana Plateau remains one of my favorite places on the planet, and I have explored the area extensively. The plateau escaped the last few glaciations in Yosemite, and as such, has remained relatively untouched by some estimates for the last 25 million years. When I hike in the Dana Plateau, my feet trod upon an ancient land, and one that appears very different from the surrounding mountains. Here is a video I made about the Dana Plateau in November of 2009. Check out the snow cover difference from my first video.

As I note in my video diary of the hike, being on the snowless landscape in January had a very voyeuristic feel to it, like barging in on someone while they are undressing. The landscape appeared naked and in need of its winter coat. Hiking this late in winter has been an amazing experience, but we’ll hope Mr. Snow Miser makes a visit to Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada soon! Does anyone know his Twitter handle?

Photo by Beth Pratt

Photo by Beth Pratt

Photos of a spectacular, amazing, not enough adjectives to describe it, sunset over Tenaya Lake in Yosemite

Sunset over Tenaya Lake (photo by Paul Amstutz)My friends Paul and Karen Amstutz took their family up for a skate on Tenaya Lake on January 2 and were gifted with a truly amazing sunset. At about 4 pm, I had headed down the hill back home from my trip to Tuolumne, and Paul and Karen considered doing the same as it looked like storm clouds were approaching. When the alpenglow kicked in the sky exploded in a fiery burst of color and instead of leaving, they remained to watch this mesmerizing scene. I am sad I missed it, but thankful Paul and Karen shared these incredible photos.

The Amstutz Family on Tenaya Lake on a colorful night

Note from Paul: "Since there's been no snow this winter, we've been taking our 3 girls on a few "trans-Sierra-skate" trips. It's been fantastic to skate on June Lake, Gull Lake, the Tuolumne River, and of course, stunning Tenaya Lake. Being a California boy, I don't have much experience with frozen bodies of water, so these weeks have been extra special. In 25 years of living, working & playing in the Park, I'd have to say that skating on Tenaya, by moonlight, warm sunshine, and during astounding sunsets, has been one of my absolute Yosemite highlights!"

Heaven looks a lot like Tioga Pass in Yosemite: record breaking drive on January 2

Heaven looks a lot like Tioga Pass: record opening 01/02/12My idea of heaven is the high country in Yosemite near Tioga Pass. So when I made the drive up to Tioga Pass today-the latest the road has ever been open in its history-I paraphrased the line that Jon Bon Jovi used recently to debunk his reported demise. 

The previous record for Tioga Road occurred on January 1, 2000 when the National Park Service reopened it briefly on New Year's Day. Since 1933, the road has been open 6 times past December 1. I wrote a recent article detailing this rare occurrence for National Parks Traveler, spoke about the specialness on KQED, and CNN iReports even featured a video I made of people ice skating on Tenaya Lake from the top of Tenaya Peak. Bottom line: for a Yosemite and Sierra aficionado like me, having access this late is akin to winning the lottery. 

Of course when I have no drinking water next summer, I might feel differently. The lack of snow is alarming and the landscape is more reminiscent of spring than winter. Although it's difficult to associate any one weather event or season to climate change, welcome to the Sierra Nevada of the future. I have seen predictions under the best case warming scenarios of an 80% reduction in snowpack. The Sierra can often deliver a wallop of a storm anytime of year, and I have no doubt we'll recover at least some of the snow--this year at least. But this may be a warning from the ghost of the Sierra future.

Despite the threat of drought, let's celebrate this historic occasion--Tioga Road, you did it!

For those of you who couldn't drive Tioga Road today, I made a video and took some photos for you. Enjoy!

Tioga Pass is OPEN (photo by Beth Pratt)

On Tioga Pass on 1/2/2012

Ellery Lake and Mt Conness (photo by Beth Pratt)

Dana Meadows (photo by Beth Pratt)

Mono Lake (photo by Beth Pratt)