Yosemite National Park is one of the most popular national parks in the US, with visitors flocking to Yosemite Valley to see the massive granite faces draped with ethereal waterfalls dropping hundreds of feet in swirls of frothy mist. It’s often possible to escape the crowds by hiking a mile or two beyond the lookout …
Backpacking Hetch Hetchy to Rancheria Falls is a great way to kick off a summer backpacking season in Yosemite National Park. It’s best hiked in the spring when temperatures are reasonable but not so early that snowmelt creates dangerous conditions in streams that cascade into Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Another good time to hike here is …
Backpacking the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne route in Yosemite National Park turned out to be harder to accomplish than I expected because of repeated fires interrupting my plans. In the four years that it took to hike the 30-mile trail, I might have held ten permits, repeatedly changing them in the hopes that smoke …
This year, I upgraded to a Zoleo satellite messenger device to be able to get two-way messaging. For many years, I’ve had an early generation device that only provided one-way messaging. That simple device met my needs until last year, when I had an elderly parent who was ailing and I didn’t feel comfortable being …
If you’re looking for a place to stay outside Yosemite National Park or a way to extend your stay, one of the best places to look is Tuolumne County. Not only does Tuolumne County include most of the park, but it also contains a sizeable chunk of the adjacent Stanislaus National Forest and Emigrant Wilderness. …
So many wilderness permits, so many cancellations. The last two years have been tough for planning between the pandemic, wildfires, smoke and other issues. I salvaged one backpacking trip that was supposed to be in the Sierra by snagging a back-up to the back-up permit for an easy backpacking trip to Angel Island State Park …
Glacier Point is graced with some of the most stunning views in Yosemite National Park, with a panorama of peaks, valleys and waterfalls, including the iconic Half Dome rock formation front and center. There could hardly be a more spectacular start to a multi-day hike. Add to that a plethora of trailheads and potential routes …
The John Muir Trail (JMT) is a classic trail that covers 211 miles of scenic beauty in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. The trail starts at Happy Isles in Yosemite National Park (YNP) and ends on the summit of Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States at 14,500 feet. However, …
Resupply options on the John Muir Trail are fairly straightforward in the northern section, but it gets a little more complicated in the rugged, southern section where no backcountry ranches exist. For those with a strict timetable, it may be undesirable to have to spend a couple of days exiting the trail to get to …
Nelson Lake is a pretty lake in a unique location in Yosemite National Park as there are no maintained trails to the lake. It does require a permit, one of three cross-country locations within the park that require a permit (the other two are Budd Creek and Rockslides). Because a hike to Nelson Lake requires …