Yosemite National Park Backpacking Trips
It's pretty early in the season for Yosemite backpacking, but Hetch Hetchy is free and clear of snow so I decided to head out for the weekend and check out the wildflowers and waterfalls. My goal was to hike to Rancheria Falls on Saturday morning, set up camp, and then bag LeConte Point in the afternoon. Sunday I'd hike out and get back to the Bay Area with plenty of time for...
A lot to do in 4 days for us, but we had a great time. Lots of snattle rakes in Pate Valley and on the trail. more than i cared to see. The climb out is brutal going up to White Wolf, but we made it in pretty good time. lots of water to play in too, cold though.
The Ten Lakes hike is absolutely beautiful and peaceful. The hike begins at 7500 feet. The walk in is a steady climb, until you reach 9000 feet or so, and then the trail climbs steeply to 9600 feet Ten Lakes Pass. The panoramic view from up there is breathtaking with a view of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne and 4 of the 10 lakes. Then one descends...
Glacier Point to Illillouette to Half Dome and Happy Isle
Yosemite National Park, California, United States
21.7 miles
21.7 miles
Arrived in Yosemite in time to pick up the Wilderness Permit before the office closed. As traditional in our family, our first meal of the trip was Pizza at Curry Village. We unloaded the backpacks and headed to the Backpacker's Camp behind North Pines Campground. The weather was so nice, we just pulled out the sleeping bags and left the tents in the packs.Next morning, up in time to catch the 10...
Easy trip from Tuolomne Meadows, out the Glen Aulin trail down to see the waterfalls. The winter was pretty snow-heavy, so the water levels were awesome. Part of the trail heading out was flooded, but besides the mosquitoes, it just made it that much more of an adventure.Though I believe this is considered a fairly popular route, we saw about 10 or so day hikers on the way to the High Sierra...
May Lake to Snow Creek on Yosemite Valley North Rim
Yosemite Valley, California, United States
14.1 miles
14.1 miles
I was holding out hope that the epic overnight trip covering a lot of miles and some cross-country travel I had planned for this weekend would work out, but this year's late snow cover would make it more epic than I wanted. So, at the last minute I trolled my Yosemite friends for conditions and switched plans to an easy overnighter from a low-traffic trailhead south of May Lake to a high-traffic...
Our original plans for the weekend were for a mellow family backpack with the girls but when the girls started to bail we changed plans and headed out to the Eastern Sierra. After leaving San Jose at 6am we arrived in Bridgeport at 12pm to pick up our wilderness permits at the ranger station. Unfortunately(or maybe serendipitously) our first choice of the Green Creek trailhead had filled up with 40 people by 8am...
Early in 2010 I ran across an old Backpacker article describing a loop through southern Yosemite's Clark Range circling Merced and Triple Divide Peaks. The trip included high passes, enough mileage for a weeklong trip, and a distinct dearth of people -- what's not to like?So I sent in my permit application and started training.This hike proved to be a Sierran classic: granite-rimmed lakes, thick forests and open meadows, fields of talus...
An overnighter along the beautiful Chilnualna Falls trail in Yosemite near Wawona.
We left San Jose bright and early at 6am and arrived in Wawona around 9:30 including a 15 minute or so to pay our $20 for a week long pass. Next stop was the beautiful Wawona Hotel to meet the others and grab our wilderness permit at the wilderness center. We arrived early so went exploring around the hotel grounds and...
It's spring, and spring means waterfalls and flowers and green in Yosemite. What better way to spend a spring weekend than gawking at all of these things, especially on a backpacking trip?Hetch Hetchy is the fraternal twin of Yosemite Valley, drowned in the early 20th century to provide drinking water for the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result, it's much less visited than Yosemite Valley, and you can even go backpacking...
