Backpacking:

	Ohlone Wilderness Trail
	South Desolation Wilderness
	Bull Run Lake

Trip Reports:

	Pinnacles 03/04
	Death Valley 10/03
	Reno 07/03
	Fourth of July 2003
	Memorial Day 2003
	Carson-Iceberg 11/02
	Yosemite 10/02
	Mt. Whitney 08/02
	Carson-Iceberg 07/02

Other Links:

	Birds
	Wildflowers
	Gear
	External Hiking Links

We hiked at a steady grade through the forest. There were occasional peeks of the dome between the trees, and we could hear some people climbing the dome's granite slopes. We didn't have too much company on the trail, doubtlessly because it was a Tuesday - I wouldn't care to be in this area come July 4th! Before long Dog Dome appeared to our left and we took a short detour to climb it. It was an easy walk up to the top along the dome's erratic-strewn slopes, and there were great views of the Yosemite high country all around. There was a large'ish murky body of water at the base of the dome which I though to be Dog Lake. Given that it was brown and unattractive, we decided to veer from our original plan of hiking Lembert Dome and Dog Lake. Had I bothered to look at my topo map, I'd have noticed that Dog Lake is a little ways away from the dome, and the ugly pond is a nameless snowmelt - oh well!

After rejoining the Lembert Dome trail, it was a nice walk up granite slabs to the base of the dome, then a fun friction climb up to Lembert's summit. Sarah didn't care for the steepness of the final few dozen yards and perched herself on a granite shelf with a fine view southeast while I went to the top. The top had even better views than Dog Dome, with most of the Yosemite high country visible. It was quite windy on top, enough so to affect my balance, so I didn't get too terribly close to the edge. I offered to take a picture of a father and son on the top and they took mine, and after taking the requesite summit pics I headed down to rejoin Sarah.

We went back the way we came, although left to my druthers I'd have probably gone down the steep granite slopes of the dome directly to the parking lot. We ran across a handfull of people including a couple who asked us how far it was which we found somewhat amusing since they were no more than half a mile from the trailhead! There were several rock climbers ascending the sheer face of the dome and we stopped for a bit to watch them. We veered left on an unofficial trail along the foot of the dome and enjoyed some nice views up to the summit, and soon arrived back at the car, 2hrs and 16min after we'd started.

This hike has a fantastic effort-to-view ratio, probably the best I've done so far in the Yosemite area. Nearly anyone in reasonable shape (and not too affected by altitude) should be able to do this hike in a few hours and the views are superb.

Hike Stats:

Distance:	~3mi
Total Time:	2h 16m
Elevation gain:	~1000 feet
Difficulty:	6
Scenery:	9
Trail condition/markings/etc:	8 - easy to follow if a tad rocky in places
Overall rating:	9