journal

A collection of selected trip reports from over the years.

Justin Dong Justin Dong

Volcanic Ridge – July 3-4, 2025

I didn’t want to do an extended trip over the holiday weekend so I instead set a lofty goal for a quick overnight trip to Volcanic Ridge. I first visited this place in 2018 where I missed sunrise from the summit by half an hour. I had come back last summer to properly catch the sunrise but extraordinarily high winds in excess of 50 mph forced me to abandon my summit bid. This year, despite more windy weather, I was finally able to not just catch the summit sunrise but also photograph the Milky Way.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Pioneer Basin – June 28-29, 2025

Pioneer Basin is place that’s been on my hiking to-do list for a few years now. It usually gets put on the back burner when I start thinking about how one has to drop 2000 ft into this basin and then regain it on the hike out. This month, though, I’ve been trying to slowly ramp up the difficulty of my backpacking trips in preparation for a much harder trip at the end of July, and Pioneer Basin definitely fit the bill, clocking in at a roundtrip 18.5 miles and 4600 ft of gain.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Hungry Packer Lake – June 21-22, 2025

I’ve been to Hungry Packer Lake once before – in August 2023 the week after Hurricane Hillary brought unprecedented summer rains to California. The weather was still unsettled at this time and my trip was marked by freezing temperatures and heavy rain. This time, I was much more fortunate to experience one of my favorite lake basins in the Sierra in perfect weather.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Matlock Lake – June 7-8, 2025

My first real backpacking trip of the season was an easy one. The snow was still clinging to the peaks, the crowds mostly kept to greener pastures, and my lungs protested their re-introduction to sleeping about 10,000 ft.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Little Lakes Valley – May 31-June 1, 2025

I usually only post duplicate trip reports when the second trip has an interesting feature missing from the prior report. In truth, this was a very last minute trip with the only goal being astrophotography. I had tried to capture the Milky Way above Bear Creek Spire last September, but it was too late in the year and I had brought the wrong lens. This time, armed with much more technical skills, I was successful.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Eagle Tower – May 17, 2025

I heard of Eagle Tower for the first time this winter when some descending hikers told me they were coming from Eagle Tower. Not knowing there was a difference between Eagle Tower and the eponymous peak (my real destination that day), I naively told them “oh, me too!” After that day, I did some research on Eagle Tower but largely put it out of mind. This spring, my friend Ngan and I were planning to spend a relaxed day in Yosemite Valley to do some photography but we both realized we’d probably be pretty bored by the afternoon without some hiking thrown into the mix. One thing lead to another and we had settled on a day hike to Eagle Tower before watching sunset at the newly reopened Glacier Point.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Cycling Glacier Point - May 9, 2025

For a few days each year, Glacier Point Road in Yosemite opens only to cyclists just before it reopens to cars. I’m by no means a cyclist and haven’t ridden a bike in the better part of a decade, but my friend Paulina convinced me to do this ride with her by lending me her e-bike. We had the entire road to ourselves at sunset and ate dinner under the stars and moon

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Panorama Trail + Yosemite photography - May 4, 2025

I was due for a monthly conditioning hike and chose to go up the Mist Trail and JMT up to Panorama Point since I had never been up that way before, not even to Vernal and Nevada Falls. My real aim was an unnamed 7007-ft summit above Panorama Point which I had hoped would have good views of the surrounding area.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Mission Peak – April 13, 2025

I had been putting off doing this hike for a couple of years since I knew it was extremely popular and I’d have little privacy on the trail. I tackled this one on a beautiful Sunday evening and had a great time. Crowded? Sure. Manageable? Absolutely. And the views in spring are absolutely worth it.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Spring in the Bay Area – April 2025

Up until this month, I had never done any hiking in the Bay Area save for an ill-fated hike in Los Gatos the week I moved to California. It was July and the hills were the brown and yellow of dead grass. Needless to say, it was not a good first impression of the area. But every year in late winter, the hills transform into a lush green as the grasses are nourished by winter rains. None of the hikes here are particularly challenging, but they’re extremely picturesque for the photography-minded.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Winter in Yosemite (pt. 2) — April 2025

April Fools Day brought more snow to the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite Valley. This wasn’t a particularly intense storm, but I had checked the valley webcams that night and, combined with the favorable weather forecast calling for cold temps and clear skies in the morning, realized this could be my last chance to photograph the snow this year. On Tuesday night, I pulled the trigger and decided to take a half day off work to photograph sunrise in the Valley.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Winter in Yosemite (pt. 1) — Jan., Feb., March 2025

True to my promise to myself, I managed to get out for a substantial hike about once a month this winter, including hikes to Dewey Point and Yosemite Point. This season has been relatively average for the Sierra in terms of snowpack, but like most other things out here, the snow comes in extremes. A month or two can go by without any significant snowfall followed by multiple storms dumping 5-6 ft of snow in one go.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Rambling in Yosemite – November 9 & 29

With winter fast-approaching, I’ve been looking for ways to continue hiking all year-round. When I lived in New England, winters were very cold and while trails were accessible, the weather was fickle and it could be deadly to get caught out in marginal conditions. Plus, the scenery there did not hold a candle to anything on the West Coast which just made it that much harder. Now that I live in California with Yosemite just a stone’s throw away, getting out there in the winter is so much easier. I visited Yosemite Valley in peak fall conditions a few weeks ago and again this week at the onset of winter conditions to get some conditioning hikes in.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Excelsior Mountain – Oct. 26, 2024

I typically only hike in summer which means that I’m usually very out of shape at the start of prime backpacking season. Thus, I’ve been making a very concerted effort this year to get out in the backcountry year-round. Due to forecasted high winds, I did a quick day hike in the Hoover Wilderness rather than try to do an overnight trip. I had never been to the Hoover Wilderness before but it offered quick, easy access to the Sierra high country and ended up being a great day outing.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Granite Park - Oct 5-6, 2024

The last major backpacking trip of the year for me. Most of my weekend trips (and even my longer trips) tend to keep it under 3000 ft of elevation gain, mostly because the majority of the eastern Sierra hikes that don’t involve climbing a peak usually don’t exceed 3000 ft of gain. Granite Park though is a whopping 8.5 miles and 4500 ft of gain from the Pine Creek trailhead. I viewed this hike as a challenge to check my physical fitness and also check out an area of the Sierra I’ve wanted to see for a long time.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Little Lakes Valley - Sept. 28-29, 2024

An easy and relaxing trip to the mountains was just what I needed to close out September. I met up with my friend Nicole (and her pup Noodle) and her friend Carlos for a trip to Little Lakes Valley for the weekend. This is one of the easiest high elevation hikes in the Sierra with plenty of great views right from the trailhead. We set up camp relatively close to the trailhead and then rambled around the upper lakes for the rest of the day.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Mt. Morgan South (ish) - Sept. 21-22, 2024

I set out to photograph sunrise from the summit of Mt. Morgan South on a chilly summer morning – the last Saturday of summer, in fact. It had snowed on two separate occasions the week before and, unbeknownst to me, the upper reaches of the mountain held 3+ feet of unconsolidated snow. The conditions slowed me down immensely and I made it 150 ft below the summit just as the sun painted the surrounding peaks orange.

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Justin Dong Justin Dong

Sabrina Lake to North Lake via Ionian Basin - Aug. 29 - Sept. 2

I hadn’t done a true cross country hike in a while, and I can’t think of a more worthy one than a jaunt into the Ionian Basin. This started off as a planned Labor Day Weekend trip to Darwin Bench which had been on my backpacking list for a while and slowly evolved as researched the area and learned about the fabled basin.

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