Tenaya Lake (Alt. 8141) is one of the gems of the High Sierra. It is a large, deep, glacial lake imposingly surrounded by granite crags and domes. Its Indian name, Py-we-ack, meant "lake of the glistening rocks," referring to the glacier polished granite at its upper end. The lake and the pyramidal peak to the east were renamed Tenaya when the last remnant of Chief Tenaya's Yosemite Tribe was captured here by the Mariposa Battalion on June 5, 1851. The lake is one of the best in the park for a permanent auto camp. It was stocked with Loch Leven trout in 1911 and with rainbow, eastern brook, black spotted, and steelhead in 1917, 1918, and 1919, but fishing is only fair. From the lower end of the lake the Forsyth Pass Trail (Trail Trip 6) bears eastward across the rocky meadows, and the Yosemite Trail (Trail Trip 5) takes off toward the southwest.
Our road skirts the western lake shore. At a point where Murphy Creek enters from the north are the ruins of a log cabin which was built by John L. Murphy, one of the early pioneer guides of the region. The McGee Lake Trail to Waterwheel Falls here turns off from the road. Rounding the polished base of Polly Dome (Alt. 9786) we finally halt at Tenaya Lake Lodge near the white beach at the lake's upper extremity. Accommodations are excellent and fishing tackle and rowboats may be rented.
At the head of the long flat canyon bottom is a peculiar glacial monument often mistaken for Polly Dome. Passing this, our road continues up the stream to its source, where the great Tuolumne Glacier overflowed and sent a branch southward to help carve out the stupendous depths of Tenaya Canyon.
Tuolumne Meadows (Alt. 8594), the most superb of all high mountain pleasure grounds, lies seven and a half miles from Tenaya Lake. In the region are innumerable side trips to alpine summits, to lakes and streams teeming with trout, to thundering waterfalls, and to peaceful green pastures of the highlands. Tioga Pass (Alt. 9941) is seven miles further, and another sixteen miles takes us down Leevining Canyon to the weird semi-desert region at Mono Lake. The road then continues northward to Lake Tahoe about 118 miles distant.
ROAD TRIP V
YOSEMITE TO HETCH HETCHY via BIG OAK FLAT ROAD AND HETCH HETCHY RAILROAD
(Round trip 77 miles—1 day by motor and railroad)
A new and exceptionally scenic one-day round trip between Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy has been made possible by the construction activities on the San Francisco Dam. Throughout the entire season a gasoline railroad bus runs on daily schedule between Mather (Hog Ranch) and Hetch Hetchy, stopping long enough to allow one to view the wonderful canyon and to inspect the enormous engineering project. One may motor privately from Yosemite to Mather or may ride by the auto stage, which makes one round trip daily.
From Yosemite we follow the Big Oak Flat Road (Road Trips VI and IV) to the road junction one mile north of Carl Inn, a resort on the South Fork of the Tuolumne River. At this junction (23.4 miles from Yosemite) we turn to the left on the old Hog Ranch Road, which bears to the northwest thru the pines of the Stanislaus National Forest.