Five years ago, Jim and I discovered Yosemite made a great early season backpacking destination. When Washington’s trails are still under a foot of snow, Yosemite is dry and sunny with waterfalls galore.
For this year, we decided on a 6-day trip. This would give us plenty of time to do a large loop through a part of Yosemite we hadn’t been to before.
We started at White Wolf Campground. After hiking less than a mile, we hit the junction that marked the starting and ending point for our loop. We took a left and head to Pate Valley. Once we broke out of the trees, views of north Yosemite opened up. There would be no Half Dome or El Capitan on this hike. Just the high Sierras and lots of waterfalls.
We had a great view of the Tuolumne Reservoir. We would be hiking up the canyon formed by the Tuolumne River. Fondly name the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne.
Today was all downhill, 4,000 feet of it. Might not sound like a bad idea but many of Yosemite trails are made of rock steps. I finished the trip with blisters on the bottom of my feet. I am currently soaking them in ebson salts as I write this report.
As we were approaching Pate Valley, we came across our first hikers of the day. Yosemite has the reputation of being crowded but the wilderness is void of people. The hikers gave us a tip on how to find a premium campsite on the river.
The breeze off the river was enough to keep the bugs away. Jim and I cleaned up in the river in complete privacy. Shortly before dinner, another couple showed up to camp. Four of us had Pate Valley campground to ourselves.
We slept on top of our comfortable until early morning. We woke to warm air. By the time we headed up the Tuolumne Canyon, it was already getting uncomfortably hot. Luckily, most of the trail was on the bank of the river so we had a steady, cool breeze.
Just as I started to melt from the hot sun, we came upon Register Creek which had a wonderful waterfall. Our spirits immediately soared.
The cool water felt so good on our feet that we walked back and forth across the creek several times. We couldn’t help but explore the alcove the waterfall had carved in the rocks.
Jim and I agreed that Brooke would have spent hours in the cold pool. In an attempt to travel fulltime, Brooke has rebranded herself and redesigned her website. Check it out Brooke Beyond . She is currently in Italy and plans to be in Egypt, Jordon, and Israel in the fall. She has many ideas of where to go after that. Subscribe on her site to follow along in her adventures.
After a long break next to the falls, we put back on our backpacks and continued hiking up the canyon. The trail moved away from the riverbank in order to climb more easily. When we left the riverbank, we lost our breeze and the air got very stale and hot. The next 700 feet were the hardest of the entire trip.
Mid-afternoon, we returned to the riverbank and the breeze. We both dunked our heads in the cold river.
The hike was beautiful but oh so hot. The problem with a loop trip is you have to do a specific number of miles in a day otherwise you won’t make your flight back home. So as much as we wanted to stop and soke in the river, we had to keep going.
When we finally came to camp, we both quickly removed our hiking boots and couldn’t get our aching feet in the river fast enough. We both decided we need an early morning the next day. Neither of us wanted to climb anymore in the heat of the day.
When I woke at 5am, I began to poke at Jim. I think Jim’s idea of getting up early was 6:30. In the end, I won and we were both up and packing by 5:15. Hike up the falls in the morning shade was so comfortable and beautiful.
As we hiked in the cool morning, I enjoyed the the sculputed trail created during the 1940’s Works Projects.
When I saw Waterwheel Falls, I knew the first climb of the day was almost over. So much easier without the sun on our backs.
We took time to photograph the Waterwheel from the top. Careful to not get too close. On slip here and you were definitely done.
We hiked past LeConte Falls. When we reached the bottom of California Falls, we decided it was time for a long break. What a beautiful spot to spend sometime.
After our break, we hiked along the raging river for another hour before we reached Glen Aulin which marked the end of the waterfalls. Jim and I were both taken back by how quite it was without the river.
After Glen Aulin there was a small waterfall which offered a nice view of the canyon from the top. This marked the end of the first half of our trip.
The Glen Aulin area had more hikers than we saw on the rest of the trip combined. This area can be reached by day hikers so it tends to be very busy.
I really wanted to give my feet a break before heading on so Jim recommended we take a lunch break at the Glen Aulin campground. We both spent a good 20 minutes soaking our feet at the base of White Cascade falls.
After a nice long break, we headed toward May Lake. Along the way, we passed McGee Lake. We both wondered way this place was not a more popular destination.
As we navigated the swamp near May Lake, we got our first view of Tuolumne Peak. Our peak goal for the next day.
We climbed another 2000 feet before reach our first of three passes. We scouted around for a good flat spot to make camp. As much as we enjoyed having a river to soak our feet in, Jim and I do enjoy a camp with a view even more.
This camp even came with a furry resident.
We enjoyed an evening of cold margaritas, lots of laughs, and sunset views. During the night the temps dropped and the wind picked up. We woke to partially cloudy skies.
We packed up and head less than a mile down the trail to the north ridge of Tuolumne Peak. Where we dropped packs and scrambled up the peak.
Just before the summit, we came to residual snow patches. The snow conditions were more like mid-July than early-June in Yosemite. It was going to be a dry summer.
The summit looked across at Mt Hoffman. A peak goal for another trip. Maybe next year.
I was very interested in the strange summit rock. They looked to be carved.
As soon as we returned to our packs, the skies began to spit rain on us. This continued on and off for the rest of the afternoon. With our rain jackets on, we continued on to Ten Lakes Basin. This involved a long drop into a river valley.
Followed by a long climb into the Lakes basin. As we crested our final ridge, I was not feeling well so we made camp on the first flat spot we could find. Turned out to be quite comfortable.
We woke to blue skies which gave me energy despite feeling under the weather. We packed up slowly and then headed off to find our first lake.
Before we knew it, we had hiked through the entire basin and were headed up to Ten Lakes Pass. This basin reminded Jim and I of the Enchantments if you added a bunch of trees and got rid of the pointy mountain peaks.
We reached Ten Lakes Pass by early afternoon. Jim really wanted to hike up one of the nearby peaks for a better look at the basin. I just wanted to find a flat rock and lay down in the sunshine.
When Jim returned 2 hours later, I hadn’t moved. I was really feeling crappy and wanted to make camp for the night. Jim scouted around and found a beautiful spot up on the ridge. Easily our best camp of the trip.
After another hour of laying around, I was feeling good enough to hike out to a viewpoint which allowed us to look across at the Tuolumne Canyon. It is always fun when you do a loop and can look back on where you were a few days ago.
By the time we went to bed, I was feeling a 100% better which was good since the next day we would have some miles to hike to catch up to where we were supposed to be camping.
We rose early and were on the trail in no time. We did have a 600-foot climb to do today and we wanted to get it over before the sun got too high in the sky. When we cleared our last high point, we took a long break and reminisced about our adventure.
The hike out to the car was pretty uneventful. Then there was the long drive back to Sacramento. We love our Yosemite hikes but the drive we could do without.