This hike doesn't seem that long, distance-wise, at 14 miles roundtrip and not that difficult, with only 2000 ft elevation gain, but it's at altitude, from around 8000 ft at Tenaya Lake to the 9926 ft peak of Clouds Rest. For me, at least, this made the hike on par with the Yosemite Valley to Half Dome hike, which has twice the elevation gain. From the start, just by the lake, the peak looks a long way away...
On the way up, it's very pretty scenery, and there's really only one steep grade -- the first climb up from the lake. After that, it's gently rolling until the last gradual climb to the peak. We hiked in the early autumn and while it was a beautiful day, we had to cope with some smoke inhalation on the way up. There was a fire in the valley south of the main one.
The peak is reached by walking up what some people describe as a knife edge ridge. It's actually not that narrow, though for acrophobics, it probably is, with the slopes on either side of you dropping away a thousand feet. This is the view back towards Tenaya along the way to the peak. You can see the smoke inversion layer pretty clearly.
And this is the view from the top, looking west towards the main valley floor, with Half Dome from the direction most people don't see.
You'll have to excuse these terrible pictures. At the end of the day, I realized that the camera was set on "macro" close focus. Duh!