June 2001 

Mt. Dana Warm Up Hike:  Although we were tired to begin with (I had gotten off a plane from Peru just 18 hours earlier, and Griffin had flown in from a business trip to Korea the day before), we left San Francisco at 5:30 am to allow for a "warm up" hike of Mt. Dana (13,053') in Yosemite NP on the way to Mammoth.  Mt. Dana is a steep but short and relatively quick hike from the eastern park entrance at Tioga Pass.  This was my fourth trip to the summit of Mt. Dana (after all, Dana is my wife's name), and I never tire of the tremendous view of Yosemite and the Owens Valley from the summit.

Rest stop at Olmstead Point on the Tioga Pass road in Yosemite.  Looking west down Tenaya Canyon, with Half Dome in the distance.

EB and Liz hiking up the ridge out of Dana Meadows

Rich and Griffin on the plateau above Dana Meadows.  Behind us are the sharp summits of the Cathedral Range (including the Matthes Crest, Cockscomb, Unicorn Peak and Cathedral Peak).  At the right edge of the photo are Medicott Dome and Mt. Hoffman.  Tuolumne Meadows lies below.    

Griffin picks his way through the talus up the last few hundred feet below the summit of Mt. Dana.  Behind him, the broad west ridge of Mt. Gibbs descends to Dana Meadows.  In the background, the Kuna Crest rises on the other side of the Parker Pass drainage, and Mt. Lyell (with its prominent glacier) and Mt. Maclure dominate the horizon.

View of Mono Lake from the summit, looking over the barren Dana Plateau and Lee Vining Canyon.

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