Yosemite: Tenaya Lake (East Shore)

(Continued from Yosemite: Tenaya Lake (West Shore))

Featured Photo: “Sand Beach and Granite Dome, Tenaya Lake”  Yosemite National Park, California—2023

A five-minute drive on Tioga Road transported us from the western to the eastern end of Tenaya Lake. Across the road from the parking lot, we were greeted by another wall of craggy, multi-colored granite and slender green trees—all sunlit in a bright blue, cloudless sky—reminding me how perfect the weather had turned for our drive that Sunday.

We grabbed the small bag containing the lunch we would share—a ham and cheese sandwich, a bag of chips, and a chocolate bar, all from the little store at the hotel—and walked a short distance to the nearby picnic tables.

Sitting beside a sun-dappled grassy stand of trees, my sister and I ate and talked about what we’d already seen that day, and what was yet to come. Next up was a view of Tenaya Lake from the eastern shore, but from where we sat near the parking area, the lake was not visible, and we began to wonder exactly how to get to there.

From a car parked beside our own, a kind-looking man emerged and pulled a portable picnic table from his trunk. He started walking toward the woods, and we asked if he was going to the lake shore. He paused, then replied, “Yes, we’re having a family reunion on the beach.” We asked the way, and the man smiled, reassuring us it was easy. He pointed to a boardwalk and said, “That leads to a dirt path, which will take you directly to the shore.” We thanked him, then continued eating.

During our brief time at Yosemite—even in the crowded area around Yosemite Valley—we met a number of people willing to engage in friendly conversation. Perhaps it was a shared love of nature—something about the beauty and peacefulness of Yosemite—that created a sense of goodwill toward others, a characteristic seemingly less common beyond the park’s boundaries.

After lunch, having observed several signs warning what bears might do to get at leftovers in unsecured garbage cans, we returned our trash and scraps to the car, then headed toward the boardwalk.

As we’d been told, the boardwalk ended at a well-worn dirt path…

…that we followed deeper into the woods…

…until we reached a clearing at the sandy beach…

…and got our first glimpse of Tenaya Lake from its eastern shore.

Fifty yards or so, off to our right, a blue beach tent was set up for shade beside several tables, with colorful umbrellas and chairs, where the kind-looking man and his relatives—perhaps 15 or 20 people in all, mostly dressed in their Sunday-best—were enjoying their reunion. To our left, the beach stretched out a hundred yards or more, and was empty, except for a couple of people and a dog or two. My sister wanted to stay near the trail head; I wanted to walk toward the open stretch of beach, but not before capturing another panorama view of Tenaya Lake.

I took a couple of photos as I walked along the sandy shore…

…coming to a shallow stream, a few yards wide, that I needed to cross to continue my trek along the edge of the lake.

I kept my feet mostly dry by stepping across the water on a couple of rocks and a small, broken limb, then turned back to see where I had been, taking today’s Featured Photo of the beach, with its sand and grass, the still lake, and the granite dome beyond. Turning away from the lake, I strolled to where the beach met the woods, and saw living trees with exposed roots…

…while closer to the lake, some trees had fallen, with the bottom of their roots now visible.

Farther along the beach, I turned again to look back and captured this photo…

…then noticed something lying in the shallow water near the lake shore. Intrigued, I started walking toward the object, while also zooming in closer with my iPhone/camera…

…and closer still, until I got this shot.

The shape in the water reminded me of a large, drab chameleon, or perhaps the carcass of some prehistoric animal—a dinosaur or maybe a mythical dragon. I realized it was likely just driftwood or part of a tree trunk, smoothed by the lake water. But again, as when I’d seen the weathered wood along the west shore, it seemed driftwood still didn’t make sense, somehow.

Later, when I was back home, I came across a YouTube video (also available on the nps.gov website) that talked about “mystery trees” in Tenaya Lake.

Rather than spouting some UFO theory or Bigfoot hoax, the story of the mystery trees seems solidly rooted in science and history. Summarizing from the video, and supplemented by information from the yosemitehikes.com website, I learned that what appear to be stumps poking up just above the water are actually the remaining tops of lodgepole pine trees that are between 600 and 1,000 years old. The trees grew when the water level in Tenaya Lake was much lower; they still stand, stretching some 40 or 50 feet below the current surface of the water, their roots extending into the sand at the bottom of the lake.

The age of the trees generally overlaps with the Medieval Warm Period, which lasted roughly 500 years—from around 900 to 1300 CE—and was classified by two separate “megadroughts”, each persisting for an incredible 100 years. Global temperatures were higher, and precipitation lower, causing lake levels to drop sufficiently that forests formed on what was previously the lake floor.

So, it seems the mangled wooden shape I saw lying in the shallow water, along with the other logs, stumps, and roots we had seen earlier around the lake, might well have been remnants of these mystery trees—ancient, even if not quite prehistoric, as I had imagined. And I hadn’t noticed at the time, during our prior stop along the western shore of Tenaya Lake—with my attention and my camera focused instead on the surrounding grandeur—but at least one of the mystery trees was visible to us, projecting from the water’s surface. Looking back through the series of photos I took, it’s possible to pick out the tree stump remnant: it’s just above the text I added in the enlarged photos below, taken from slightly different locations along the shoreline. Now I know it’s there, I can’t un-see the mystery tree; it is the first thing that draws my eye when I look again at the pictures.

Anyway, following my close encounter with the chameleon-dinosaur-dragon-mystery-tree-remnant on the eastern shore of Tenaya Lake…

…I checked the time and saw I’d been walking for 10 minutes. I retraced my steps to meet up with my sister, taking a photo or two along the way…

…and found her relaxing on the sandy beach, sitting in a nicely carved wooden “throne”, which screamed, “take a picture”!

Together, we walked back through the woods, along the trail, and over the boardwalk, until we reached the parking lot and were again struck by the grand view across the road.

In all, we had been at Tenaya Lake just over an hour, and were ready to head out for Tuolumne Meadows, to find John Muir’s Trail. As we pulled out of the parking lot and turned eastward onto Tioga Road, we were greeted by another spectacular dome.

We drove closer and stopped to have a better look. I got out of the car and took a photo of the dome with the trees and nearby rocks in the foreground.

I noticed the remarkable, solitary, sturdy tree—likely a Sierra juniper—rising from the side of the granite, mid-way up the dome and slightly off to the right, and zoomed in for a closer shot.

Looking back at my photo, I like to imagine that resilient tree—thriving despite its precarious perch—is a living tribute to old Chief Tenaya. The granite dome on which the juniper rests is aptly called Pywiack, the original Ahwahneechee name for the beautiful body of cool, clear water we had just visited—the name Chief Tenaya wanted to preserve, because it already belonged to the lake that now, instead, bears his name.

(To be continued…)