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SKY HIGH in Yosemite

Fresh bloom­ing skyp­i­lot, known to botanists as pole­mo­nium ex­im­ium, are high-al­ti­tude moun­tain flow­ers that are unique to sky is­lands of the Cen­tral and Southern Sierra Ne­vada. Some moun­tain wild­flower ex­perts say they are most com­mon be­tween 10,000 feet and 14,000 feet on Mounts Whit­ney and Langley, and near the sum­mit of Mount Dana, pic­tured here Satur­day, July 11, 2020.

Tears came to a Sonora woman's eyes when she stood on top of Mount Dana for the first time Saturday afternoon.

She'd just walked the steepest two and three-quarter miles she could remember, to reach the flat-topped pinnacle of the second-highest summit in Tuolumne County and Yosemite National Park. She's 62 years old and she was exhilarated to be on top of a 13,050-foot tall mountain with steep, sheer cliffs overlooking the east edges of the Central Sierra.

“I think it was the exertion, the achievement, the relief, and the views more than anything else,” Wendy Hesse said Monday. “I felt miniscule. I felt awed by the enormity of the land around me. We sat eating lunch facing east, that steepest side. It's just astounding.”

Five years ago Hesse walked up 14,505-foot Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the 400-mile-long Sierra Nevada range, the tallest in California, and the tallest in 48 contiguous states coast-tocoast. She said the summit of Dana was more moving than being on top of Whitney.

“On Whitney we didn't have a full 360-degrees view,” Hesse said. “There was a bank of clouds pouring over the eastern face, we couldn't see east.”

On Saturday, Hesse said, the weather was totally clear. It was scorching at 102 degrees Fahrenheit down in Sonora. For Hesse on top of Mount Dana, it was cool in the 60s with no wind. She and her hiking partner could see in all directions, including northeast to massive Mono Lake, which covers more than 69 square miles below Highway 120 and Lee Vining.

Hesse had wanted to try Mount Dana since last year, when she and a friend arrived to attempt it and found the winds far too gusty that day. They went the opposite way toward Saddlebag Lake, and on their walk back, Dana loomed far above them, calling to them, Hesse said.

This past Saturday they started walking at 8:30 a.m. from a trailhead parking area on Highway 120 right outside the east boundary of Yosemite National Park. They had the necessary park pass and a

reservation now required due to Covid-19 restrictions to enter Yosemite, but they didn't have to show them to anyone.

Hesse wore lightweight long pants, long sleeves, fingerless gloves, a neck gaiter, and a baseball cap. She used a little sunscreen on her face, ears and the back of her neck.

She and her hiking buddy carried a hundred ounces of water each. Hesse took some electrolyte powder to mix with water in a separate plastic bottle. On the trail they ate granola bars and hard little Hermann the German candies, like fruit-flavored lemon drops, and Hesse had a packet of six Ritz cracker squeeze-cheese sandwiches. For their summit lunch they had nectarines and more granola bars.

To protect her feet, Hesse wore leather hiking boots with waffle soles and ankle support. She used trekking poles when necessary. She did not carry an ice axe. She took along a rain jacket just in case, but it never got cloudy and she didn't need it at Dana's summit.

Hesse was walking with Sheri Betz, a teacher at Chinese Camp in her 50s, who lives in Cedar Ridge.

On their way up the steep trail, they passed through a sloping boulder field with big rocks jutting out of lush, mountainside meadow vegetation. Grownup marmots, the rock-dwelling mountain mammals related to squirrels and prairie dogs, were sunbathing on individual slabs, and smaller baby marmots or juvenile marmots were grouped together in another spot.

“The baby marmots look like baby otters, little furry guys,” Hesse said. “The adults were chirping. They were definitely on the lookout. There was one big marmot on top of a rock, making noise. They were brown and white with dark red tails.”

Higher up, as the trail steepened on the final summit blocks switchbacking ever higher to the jagged, rocky mountain top, Hesse and Betz came across a welcome sight to distract them from their leg-busting challenges.

They came across clusters of fresh blooming skypilot, known to botanists as polemonium eximium, high-altitude mountain flowers that are unique to sky islands of the Central and Southern Sierra Nevada. Some mountain wildflower experts say they are most common between 10,000 feet and 14,000 feet on Mounts Whitney and Langley, and near the summit of Mount Dana, which is where Hesse and Betz found them.

“It's the first time I'd seen them,” Hesse said. “A friend who worked in Yosemite as a naturalist, Lisa Murphy, she told me beforehand she said, `Kiss the sky pilots for me.' On the way up we looked for them. Then all of a sudden, the last 200, 250 feet we saw them.”

Hesse described the skypilot as little dinky purple guys, purple and white, a little succulent, like little bells with green stems maybe three inches long, in little bunches like little bouquets. They were vibrant and they stood out starkly in contrast to the shattered red and brown shards of rock they stepped over.

They got to the top about 1:15 p.m. and there were a couple young women up there. One of the strangers was on the phone, and she said she had called somebody in the UK to tell them they're on top. Hesse texted her husband to share the news, too.

“The scope of what you see up there is mind boggling,” Hesse said. “It was pretty amazing looking down at Dana Plateau. We could see clear down to Crowley Lake outside Mammoth. And the ski runs on June Mountain. And Mount Gibbs close by to the south.”

Hesse and Betz ate lunch looking east and stayed up there until about 2 p.m. They walked on down and got back to their vehicle about 4:45 p.m. Two apps on Hesse's phone showed they'd walked 5.33 miles roundtrip.

They were camping in tents at an RV park in Lee Vining. They hadn't bothered to wear masks on the walk up Mount Dana because traffic on the trail was so sparse. They came across other groups of two or four people, and as usual on steep mountain trails, people gave each other plenty of space, because the ground is steep and dynamic, with moving rocks underfoot.

At the RV park in Lee Vining, most people wore masks and most of those who didn't kept six feet away from others. So it was a mixed bag and Hesse and Betz felt safe as far as Covid-19 precautions. In Mono County, Hesse said, face coverings are required indoors and wherever else social distancing can't be practiced.

Hesse has lived in the Mother Lode for 30 years and she's been going to Yosemite since the early 1980s. Her first time she was in her 20s when she visited Tuolumne Meadows but she doesn't remember Mount Dana.

Before she and Betz departed on their trip, Hesse made sure her senior lifetime national parks pass was still valid for Yosemite entry, and in early June she made a 7-day reservation online to comply with pandemic restrictions intended to limit visitors in the national park.

It cost $2 to make the reservation. They didn't have to pay any extra fees or do any paperwork for parking or entering the park at the trailhead leading to Mount Dana. Hesse's senior lifetime national parks pass cost her $80 when she got it a year ago.