About 1 mile south of the Merced Grove Trailhead on the Big Oak Flat Road, there were 3 to 4 foot walls of snow along the road. This is about the same elevation (5500') as my upcoming hike.

The view to the right of the previous picture. This hillside was hit by the 2013 Rim Fire.

The ever-scenic loo at the Merced Grove Trailhead.

The Merced Grove trail had a narrow groomed path but, especially here near the trailhead, lots of postholes where folks without skis or snowshoes tried to walk. Those postholes are deep too ... 18 to 24 inches.

Along the trail.

A snowman guarding the trail. I'm almost 25 minutes in from the trailhead and there still lots of postholes.

This junction is about a half mile out. It's fairly level to here, but now begins the 500' drop to the grove. The other fork (ahead) is the track of the Old Coulterville Road coming in from the west. The Old Road made the turn and headed down to the Grove. The Twin Bridges once spanned Moss Creek. I've not been there. I've read only footings remain.

These old pole holes really were this strong a color of turquoise.

On the trail down. That groomed track was pretty good. Get off it though, and there were still a few postholes and plenty of difficult snow: crusty above but powdery below.

Coming into the sequoias. They just look like ordinary trees without something to give scale, but these guys are 10+ feet across.

The Merced Grove ranger cabin. It was built in 1935 and at one time was a retreat for the park superintendent. Although it's clearly well maintained (at least on the outside), I don't know if it is used any more.

Icicles on the eves.

There are two big -- 20' diameter -- sequoias near the ranger station. Lots of litter in the snow. The storm that dumped all this was a week and a half ago. (For a head-on picture of these trees with my hiking poles to give scale, see the January 2014 Merced Grove gallery.)

These are my snowshoe tracks as I wandered around. Even with 2' long platters on my feet, I would crunch through the frozen top layer and squish down six inches or so. Slow going off the groomed track.

The tops of the big trees are long way up. These are the same ones in my first shot of sequoias coming into the grove. There aren't that many big trees down here -- about 20 mature ones, half of which are right on to the trail ... easy viewing for the Old Coulterville Road stage traffic.

This group of five sequoias is the first collection one sees coming in (and the last going out). I got a much better view in 2014 when there was no snow and I could maneuver more freely to get the best angle.

Just a nice stump with some incense cedar branches on the way up.

Another view on the trail up. The forest is mostly white fir, but, depending on the location, there are sugar pines, ponderosa pines, and incense cedar in the mix.

The snow could be quite littered. I suspect some blowdowns were cleaned up here when the track was groomed after the snowstorm.

A few obstacles remained, but nothing difficult ... although this sort of thing is a little harder on snowshoes than it would be on boots with a snow free trail.

Back on the level section between the junction and the trailhead here. The north side of this section was the edge of the 2018 Ferguson Fire.

After the Merced Grove excursion I drove the Tioga Road to the gate when the plowing ends. It's just east of the Tuolumne Grove Trailhead. One can ski/snowshoe/walk up the Tioga Road although its not groomed like the Glacier Point Road near Badger Pass. Not my choice today. Time for some Valley sightseeing.

One of the pull-out between Crane Flat and the Valley offered this vista of Big Meadow and the mountains beyond. Lots of white is visible under the burned out forest. In view are areas thinned out by the 2009 Big Meadow, 2014 El Portal and 2018 Ferguson Fires. There have a few smaller fires in the last decade too.