Hiking to North Dome and Indian Rock - Yosemite, CA

On Friday, my cousins David and Kenny, my uncle Richard, and I hiked to North Dome with a side trip to the natural arch near Indian Rock. We were the only four up for a 10 mile hike the day after hiking Half Dome. The North Dome trail starts at the Porcupine Creek trailhead off CA SR-120 (aka Tioga Pass Road) and is approximately 9 miles round-trip. We drove to the trailhead from Housekeeping Camp in Yosemite Valley where we were staying the week. The hike to North Dome is a little backwards in that you hike down to the dome, making the return trip mostly uphill. North Dome is know for it's views of Half Dome, Clouds Rest, and Yosemite Valley. About halfway along the trail there is a 0.6 mile round-trip side trail to Indian Rock, the only natural arch above water in Yosemite National Park.

Download route in Keyhole Markup Language (KML) format for use with GPS units and mapping programs. Disclaimer.

We got a late start as we slept in after our 14-16 mile hike to Half Dome on Thursday. As such, the traffic on the Tioga Pass road was more than earlier in the morning. We started at about 11 AM. the parking lot was at Porcupine Creek trailhead was nearly full. A short way down the trail we started to hit patches of snow and then we hiked mostly in snow for about 1.5 miles.

   

We encountered several stream crossings (3-4 depending on if you miss the actual trail or not) and saw a black-tailed deer browsing near one of them. She didn't seem to mind us walking by. We followed others footprints in the snow, but they led in several directions, most of them incorrect. At that point I used my GPS to navigate us in more or less the correct direction. In places the snow would disappear and we would find the trail again only to loose it shortly later when the snow returned.

   

As we came closer to North Dome, the terrain became more exposed and the snow all but disappeared. We easily found the trail as we had our first glimpses of North Dome from above.

   

The trail leads down to the base of North Dome and then up to the actual dome. Once on top, the views were astonishing. Half dome and Clouds Rest were directly in front of us. This was the closest I had ever been to the North Face of Half Dome. It is the best view of Half Dome I have found in all of Yosemite National Park.

   

There was also a good view of Liberty Cap and a waterfall whose name I am not certain of.

   

Clouds Rest and Basket Dome are easily seen from atop North Dome.

   

There is a neat rock formation on top of North Dome that looks like a shoe. But the real treat is of course the view of Half Dome.

   

After enjoying the views, eating a snack, and snapping photos, we headed back up the trail. While hiking off the dome we noticed a couple tents had been pitched by other hikers above North Dome. They picked a gorgeous place to spend the night in Yosemite.

   

Before heading all the way back, we made a side trip to the natural arch on the Indian Rock trail. This spur trail is only about 0.6 miles round-trip and well worth the steep hike up to the arch.

   

   

On the way back we were able to follow the trail longer before hitting snow and having to bushwhack our way back. We ran into several other hikers who were also in search of the trail. We ended up coming back a slightly different way and only had to cross one larger creek instead of the two the normal trail crosses over. We made it back at about 4 PM (5 hours round-trip) a little tired from all the snow travel. It was a great hike and the views were well worth the effort. In a week or two most of the snow should be gone and the trail will be much easier to follow.