We started for Tuolumne Meadows Saturday afternoon. Srikant, Sridevi and Sriram were already there from Friday night. We stopped at "Dhaba Indian Cuisine" in Tracy for lunch. It was a pretty decent place. The drive to Yosemite was good - we did not encounter much traffic. Stopped at Tenaya Lake on our way to soak up to the Sun ;-)
We reached the campsite around 5:30pm. Srikant, Sridevi and Sriram were not there but we found out they have the same REI tent. We managed to put up our tent pretty quickly and the Sri family came to the campsite. They had gone for their usual evening hike to Pot Hole Dome. Sridevi made us some nice tea and then Pradosh and Srikant went to get some firewood. After that, we spent some time making the fire and then made paneer maggi for dinner. We also got a surprise (shock?) hearing that the restrooms do not have lights and no hot water. After coming back from the restroom, we ran to our tent and slept. We woke up a few times at night and imagined that a bear was walking around. It was not that cold that night and we had a decent sleep.
We got up around 7am Sunday morning and had leftover maggi for breakfast. Our plan was to hike Gaylor Lake that day. We reached the trailhead around 9:30am. Hiking at 10000 feet is a challenge which I had underestimated. It was also extremely windy. We met one couple coming down on our way up. A young couple crossed us on the way up. They were stepping from stone to stone like a sheep.
After we caught sight of the pristine blue water of Gaylor lake, we had to climb downhill for a while. We walked around the lake stopping at several spots to take photos. It was a perfect place to meditate - there was absolutely nobody. You just become one with nature. We did not meditate but we took some pics in which we posed like we were meditating.
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On our way back to the trailhead, we met several people who stopped and asked us how much of the hike was left. There was an amazing old lady climbing up. It looked like there were very few morning people in Yosemite.
After having sandwiches in the car, we decided to try another hike. We chose Cathedral lake which is 7 miles round trip. Cathedral lake is surrounded by imposing rocky mountains. Unlike Gaylor Lake, Cathedral Lake was hidden from our view till the last moment. It is beautiful though and well worth the effort.
That night, we made another fire and grilled some veggies.
Pradosh and I decided we would leave the next morning after breakfast. It was freezing cold that night and the next morning we saw the water we had left in a bucket had turned into ice. After finishing our breakfast and cleaning up our campsite, we parted ways with Sridevi, Srikant, Sriram and Tuolomne Meadows. We loved Tuolomne meadows and cannot wait to be back into the wilderness soon.
