Daily Dose of Granite

Click and embiggen to get the full effect.

On the granite face sloping down from the top of Cloud's Rest, behind Half Dome, I notice for the first time ever a tiny ribbon of water that flows from the top of the rock face all the way to the bottom.  You can see it if you enlarge the picture and look carefully.  It looks like a tiny dark line emerging about half way down from what looks like a granite bowl.  It appears to be snow melt from some hidden patch of snow, and has probably dried up by now (the picture was taken on or around July 3rd).

If I were a younger man, and in shape, I'd seriously consider hiking in from Tenaya Lake to the top of Cloud's Rest, snoop around until I found the top of the ribbon, and then follow it down to the valley floor, if possible, it looks quite steep in places, although you'd be surprised how steep of a slope you can carefully walk down on rough granite.  Probably be a good idea to camp overnight, preferably on some hidden nook way up on the rock face, or in the bowl that is probably the source. Water you'd get from the little ribbon of snowmelt.  If you were stymied by the angle of the mountainside, you could either find an alternative down, or pop back over to Little Yosemite Valley to the south and come down the Mist Trail to the valley.

That, my friends, would be a unique hike and experience that almost certainly no one else has done.  It would have to be timed so the ribbon was running with water, but not so early that there was too much snow and slippery wet rock - that face looks steep in spots.  All you young, ambitious folks, you're welcome.