Mirror Lake

A week after we returned from Michigan, we embarked on one of the few day hikes in Yosemite accessible during the winter. It was sunny, lovely weather for a stroll around Mirror Lake, and it wasn't occupied by many people.

Of course, it was chilly nonetheless! The snow plowed up in the parking space next to us looked freezer-burnt, with thick chunky crystals.

We ate a packed lunch in the car before finding the trailhead. The too-tame crows herded around us when they saw us arrive in the lot, and this one kept jumping on the car hoping to get our attention. You're not supposed to feed any animals, including the birds, but as we saw a man & his son throwing bread at them, it is not always a respected rule. The birds' behavior demonstrated that particular man was clearly not the first to do so either.

I like that this sign didn't just warn us this was a mountain lion area, but gave us instructions for avoiding or dealing with any confrontations. It didn't sound like we were all that endangered, in any case though.

We climbed on this boulder from land, but it mostly sits in the "lake" so we could peer overhead into the waters. It's actually a creek that was dammed up by a rockslide. Nature is correcting itself though, and it's slowly rerouting, meaning the lake will eventually become Mirror Meadow.

Half Dome overlooks the lake, offering a different, closer view of the rock formation. The reason it is called "Mirror" Lake is because it reflects this popular backdrop.

For a while, the park workers combed the bottom of the lake to slow it's return to meadow, preserving the famous reflection. However, they have discontinued this in favor of resuming the natural process.

Just past the lake the trail contained a warning that the trail was closed a mile ahead due to a rockslide that occurred in 2009. We had not expected that since our hiking guidebook didn't mention it, but then again, it was written in 2005. This increased our walk a bit since the hike was supposed to be a 4.2 mile loop from & back to the trailhead, but we decided to go as far as we could (which was past the halfway point) and turn back.

Observe a few sites along our path:
(Remember you can click on any of the photos to enlarge them.)

Lichen lines a lot of trees with a pretty green fuzz. I say "pretty" because it looks so bright against the reddish color of the trees, and the texture is like loofah, not like squishy moss.

Lightning strike?

A long stretch of snake grass along the trail-side.

Peeking at Patrick through the trees as he crosses a charming bridge, with pretty scenery to gaze at on either side.

Warning signs asked us to please not try to cross the rockslide area for our own safety. I had wondered prior to arriving to this spot whether we'd see any evidence of rockfall, or if the trail would stop you far enough away for extra precaution. I'm guessing this is indeed the outskirts of the zone, since you'll notice the sign in the middle and the fence have been crushed by fallen trees!
On our way to our hike, we just missed the shuttle bus that would take us to the trailhead, so we walked the mile or two extra. On our way back, we took the bus, but we got off too early and ended up walking most of the way back! Haha :) At first we were annoyed since we were tired, sore (hadn't gone on a hike in a while), and wanted to be back by 5pm. But we were rewarded on our way with a mystic view of Upper Yosemite Fall as fog settled in around a snowman occupying a portion of the valley floor.

An unexpected delight on our way from the bathrooms to the car. Sunset's crimson beams hitting Half Dome. Below is slightly closer up:

Everytime we're there, it looks a little different, but always magnificent!