The old Big Oak Flat Road

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john hansen

climber

Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 22, 2008 - 11:36pm PT

I have seen this old road from the first meadow you come to heading up the valley.

It slopes up to the west , out of the valley, below Ribbon Falls .

Back in the day ,,I hiked up to the Ribbon Falls ampitheater , along the base of el cap, and then going west thru the woods.

Wondering if there is a better way to get there from the old road .

I think you get to the road from a pullout about a 1/4 mile down from El Cap meadows but not sure, would appreciate any
info.

Any one been up that road?

Captain...or Skully

Big Wall climber

Yonder (in the sagebrush)

Aug 23, 2008 - 01:16am PT

IIt's 'that place', you know the one......
Some nice locales up there....

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

Aug 23, 2008 - 01:22am PT

hey there.. sounds very nice... thanks for the introduction to this road... never heard of this road, either...

snakefoot

climber

cali

Aug 23, 2008 - 01:22am PT

are you really curious about the road or the ribbon falls approach?

john hansen

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 23, 2008 - 01:53am PT

I am interested in the road ,and the trail to ribbon falls

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Aug 23, 2008 - 12:22pm PT

I believe that the Big Oak Flat road passes through the clearing under the toe of the Nose before switchbacking up the massive talus fields that were it's undoing as a carriage road in the early days.

The Park Service woodyard road has traditionally been the best approach to gaining height toward Ribbon Falls.

The Tangerine Trip was my first El Cap route back in '77. For reasons still unclear to me, Mason Frichette and I chose to cross all the way over the summit and descend the BOF. The upper part of the road has been largely reclaimed and presents a scene right out of Middle Earth with no paving to be seen. Lower down the shifting fortunes of the talus fields have to be negotiated but the walk is interesting. We arrived in the Valley floor madness on the fourth of July at its peak after leaving the monastery in the sky.

Great bike ride from Tamarack Flat campground at the bottom gate!

JEleazarian

Trad climber

Fresno CA

Aug 23, 2008 - 02:27pm PT

The Old Big Oak Flat Road starts at the rangers' woodpile. I really don't remember any particular advantage in getting to the Ribbon Fall area by going farther up the road, but the Little Wing Area, Audobon Buttress and Nuts Only wall, plus a few others, use this as their approach.

I second those who enjoy this old road as a hike. Just don't do it when it's warm. There are a few short sections of talus washouts, and the section below Rainbow View is now a talus scramble of a couple of hundred vertical feet. Incidentally, the switchback of Rainbow Curve is still there, but the sections before and after it are not. You get nice views of the Valley all the way down, plus a bit more adventure and solitude than that of a typical trail.

John

Melissa

Gym climber

berkeley, ca

Aug 23, 2008 - 02:33pm PT

I accidently took it down from the summit of El Cap (from where my errant trail met up w/ it) my first time up there. It wasn't the quickest option, but at least if we were to take the wrong trail, it happened to be one that emerged at my car.

It's still quite a road in places and pretty hard to pick out in others. As mentioned there are big boulder fields across parts of it.

This excellent book about the building of the roads into Yosemite details how it came to be and tells stories about the competition between Tuolumne and Mariposa Co. to have the first stage road into the Valley. I stayed up half the night reading it once.

http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/big_oak_flat_road/

There was a pretty well marked trail to ribbon falls last time I was there...not any harder-going than most climber trails of its length and better than many. The road passes way below the cliffs. My sense of direction is pretty bad, but if my memory serves the road goes pretty far back and west from El Cap so I don't think it really takes you that close to the summit of Ribbon Falls. I could be all wrong about that though.

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Aug 23, 2008 - 05:44pm PT

Been up and down that road a lot, for reasons I am not at liberty to disclose...

Here is a Valley view from that road

and one of the West Face of El Cap

Next time it snows I'll definitely walk up that road. You get to the start by driving past El Cap Meadow, and watching for the wood cutting lot on the right side of the road. In the spring the muddy holes can be quite deep (can't they Eric?!) so watch out. You'll follow the road up until large logs block your progress. Park here, and start walking.

There are places to park along the drivable parts of the road that would afford a more direct start up to the Ribbon Falls area. Gary and I did this on our Chockstone Chimney adventure.

Here is a view of the road, sort of, from the west side of the Wawona Tunnel:
actually hard to see, blowing up the bits on the scree slopes:
there are some places with switch-backs, and some rock work still standing. It is easy to get lost looking for the road in this area. Eventually it pops up on top of Last Resort Cliff, and then well above Reed's.

From a different angle

Oddly, I haven't a lot of photos while on the road.

Ran into a buzz-worm once sunning on the road... no big deal, lots of flowers early in the spring... a wonderful, pretty much out of the way place and the path to Little Wing Cliff, Audubon Buttress, and Nuts Only Cliff, "that's all I got to say about that."

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Aug 23, 2008 - 05:57pm PT

from this interesting history http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_resources/mather_years.html

the 1917 auto map:

john hansen

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 23, 2008 - 11:08pm PT

Thanks for all the info everyone.

Great pictures Ed, and a cool map too.

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

Aug 24, 2008 - 02:04am PT

hey there melissa and ed... thanks for the great road shares.. .and links... and ed, for the pics... great pics!... thanks all.... i enjoyed this talk, too....

le_bruce

climber

Oakland: what's not to love?

Aug 24, 2008 - 10:14am PT

Great pictures, Ed H. I especially like the one taken from the W side of Wawona tunnel, through which I can almost feel the crisp winter air.

Nothing like Yosemite in winter.