Yosemite high country is finally open — see reports on trails, conditions.
In Yosemite, people have been celebrating the courtordered return of the classic names of many sites, including the Ahwahnee Hotel, Curry Village, Badger Pass and Wawona Hotel. In the high country, the arrival of summer is another gamechanger that many have been waiting for.
After an eightmonth winter in Yosemite highcountry wilderness, the season for camping, hiking and backpacking is launching.
The giant Tuolumne Meadow Campground opened last weekend. Tamarack Flat and Yosemite Creek campgrounds, located on spurs off Tioga Road, opened this week. Half the campsites at Tuolumne Meadows, more than 150, are firstcome, firstserved, and all the sites at Tamarack at Yosemite Creek are firstcome, firstserved, providing an opportunity far removed from the valley mayhem.
In Yosemite Valley each day, 22,000 people have been jamming into 5 square miles and creating threehour traffic jams on the 12mile valley loop. From Yosemite Valley, it’s only 8 miles by helicopter (and 55 miles by car) to Tuolumne Meadows, but the trip right now is like taking a space shuttle into a new orbit.
As you drive up Tioga Road, you pass Olmstead Point and its view over a plunging glacial valley, and then drive past gemlike Tenaya Lake and a series of some of the best trailheads on the planet.
Derrick Muico, a Yosemite wilderness specialist, hiked out of Tuolumne Meadows last week, up Lyell Canyon on the John Muir Trail and diverted to Lyell Glacier on the flank of 13,120foot Mount Lyell. In the span of 14 miles (one way) on this trek, you go from the electric green of Tuolumne Meadows (at 8,600 feet) to the Arctic white of the Lyell Glacier (at 13,000 feet).
At the start of the trek, where you head south on the John Muir Trail, the floor of Lyell Canyon is clear of snow and the trail is wet, even muddy in spots. At the head of the canyon, a creek crossing is cold and kneedeep. As you climb out of the canyon, you then hit snow at the boulder field below 11,066foot Donohue Pass.
To reach Mount Lyell, you break off the JMT to your right and trace a ravine up to a plateau. That meets a ridge, which then rises to the Lyell and Maclure glaciers.
“The Lyell Glacier is fully covered with a snow wall and the surface is heavily suncupped,” Muico said. When he returned to Tuolumne Meadows, the infinity of green was eyepopping, he said. “The main thing,” he said with a laugh, “is just how green it is. There’s so much fresh grass.”
Out of the Tuolumne Meadows Wilderness Center, Muico and fellow wilderness specialist Christian Poupre, as trail reports from hikers come in, provided the following details on favorite hikes in the area: Tuolumne River/PCT: One of the prettiest, easy hikes anywhere is to venture north on the Pacific Crest Trail to 100foot Tuolumne Falls, a round trip of 10.6 miles. From Tuolumne Meadows, the first 3 miles are nearly flat along the Tuolumne River, where the surrounding mountain rim features Unicorn Peak (10,910 feet), Cathedral Peak (10,940) and Fairview Dome (9,731). You then descend to Tuolumne Falls near Glen Aulin. The route is clear of snow, with two easy creek crossings, first Delaney (a mile in), then Dingley (about 2.5 miles in). The bridge at Glen Aulin is out, and the High Sierra Camp here will not open this year. Cathedral Lakes: The hike to Cathedral Lakes is one of the most loved in the Yosemite high country, a 6.8mile round trip. It provides alpine beauty with a pristine meadow, small lake, and Cathedral Peak towering overhead. Much of the route is now wet, where the snow has freshly melted. Patches of snow are frequent, with the longest snowfield about 200 feet, with snowdrifts in spots as high as 5 feet, that hikers are detouring around. Tenaya Lake to Sunrise Lake: Near the start of the trail at the outlet of Tenaya Lake, you face a creek crossing (with no bridge), knee deep and ice cold. The trail conditions then transition from clear and dry, to wet, to patches of snow, and then as you rise and approach the northfacing slopes at Upper Sunrise Lake, 100% snow coverage. The Sunrise High Sierra Camp will not open this year. It’s a 6.6mile round trip. Rafferty Creek to Vogelsang: The trail and landscape is largely clear of snow, but wet, with some mosquito issues in areas with standing water. As you near the campsite at Vogelsang (10,300 feet), a few patches of snow are in the vicinity, but the campsite is snowfree. The Vogelsang High Sierra Camp will not open this year. It’s a 13.8mile round trip. Young Lakes: This trip starts with the short hike to Dog Lake at 8,743 feet (1.7 miles oneway to the head of the lake and the inlet; no camping), a popular day hike with a picnic. That route is clear. Some bypass Dog Lake and continue beyond, 6.1 miles one way from the trailhead, to Young Lakes, 9,883 feet, for an overnighter. This route requires a crossing of upper Delaney Creek, which, this week, is about 2 feet deep, 8 feet wide. As you top 9,500 feet, you will start seeing short patches of snow, most less than 50 feet long and about 1 to 2 feet deep. May Lake/Polly Dome lakes: Sections of the trails that connect 9,270foot May Lake with the short offtrail trek to the Polly Dome Lakes, including the Murphy Creek Trail off of Tioga Road, have significant snow coverage in spots. It is melting rapidly and depths vary widely based on sun exposure. North of Polly Dome, one field scout reported 95 percent snow coverage on the trail with depths ranging to 5 and 6 feet. It’s a 6.4mile round trip (Murphy Creek Trailhead to Polly Dome Lakes).