Dog Lake – Yosemite National Park – Hiking California

Following completion of Lembert Dome, Mel and I decide to hike to Dog Lake.  It is a nearby and easy extension.  If we were to begin this hike from the shared trailhead back at Tioga Road it would be  2.4 mile (3.8 KM) hike with an elevation gain of about 600 ft (183 m).  Mel and I simply hike back from the base of Lembert Dome, past the beautiful pond below the sheer north face and across the clearly signed trail junction leading to Dog Lake.  The trail to Dog Lake is relatively flat on our route through fir and lodgepole pine forest.  Almost immediately we pass a trail on the left which leads to stables more easily accessed by road.  Further along, another clearly signed trail junction heads left 4.9 miles (7.8 KM) to Young Lakes.  Past this trail junction it is a short hike on a gentle decline to the west end of Dog Lake.  The trail terminates at a T-junction which will allow circumvention of  the lake.  Mel and I head left with the intent to explore a small, prominent peninsula on the northwest side of the lake.

The shoreline of the Dog Lake is very beautiful and marshland in the foreground is framed by crystal-clear water with majestic mountains in the distance.  The half-mile-long (0.8 KM) lake rests at 9,240 ft (2,816 m) of elevation.

The peninsula that juts into the northwest corner of Dog Lake is sandy and sparsely forested.  It is a great place to sit and rest.  Mel mingles with three other hikers assembled on the lakeshore while I characteristically keep to myself and get busy taking pictures prior to turning back the way we came.  A social butterfly I am not.

There are opportunities to capture afternoon sunlight on the crystal shoreline waters of Dog Lake accentuated by brilliant, green marshland, driftwood and submerged timber.

Mel and I intuitively and erroneously decide the shortest route back to the parking area will be to return once again past the pristine pond below, and the spur trail into, Lembert Dome.  We end up completing the entire loop around Lembert Dome, with the enjoyment of not previously hiked trail and a much longer hike along Tioga Road.  It is worthwhile and we get several photographs of the dome that would have otherwise been missed.

In spite of the fact Mel and I have already hiked quite a distance today, there is one more hiking opportunity in the Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite National Park that is too good to pass up.  It ends up being even more spectacular than originally expected.