I am planning my first trip to Yosemite in early June along with 2 friends of mine (1st time backpacking for one friend), and we are considering backpacking from White Wolf trailhead to Glen Aulin/ TM along the GCT. We have time to do 3 full days of hiking, but given the length of this trip, it seems doable at a fairly leisurely pace. A couple of questions:

1) Is the trail accessible this time of year? We are doing our best to avoid snow/water crossings, but given the dry winter, my guess is that there might not be too many issues with this.
2) How can we get from TM to White wolf? We have a car and planned on driving to TM and taking a shuttle back to White Wolf to start the trip. I've read mixed information about when the shuttles actually start running, so any insight here would be helpful


Any other comments/ suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!

The Tuolumne shuttle doesnt go to White Wolf so that is out.
There is one yarts bus per day in each direction that stops at White Wolf, but it only runs on weekends during the month of June. Finally there is the hiker bus that runs once per day once the season is up and running. The hiker bus leaves Tuolomne Meadows in the early afternoon. Someone else might know the exact time.

You can take the Hiker's Buss. That's what we did two years ago.
We did the same WW-TM direction. What a fantastic hike!
I do not think there were any water crossings. I do remember WW to be pretty cold at night and Pate Valley to be steaming hot. Glen Aulin was a bit soggy.
Have fun!

Do you have a permit?

Oh and there will definitely be several wet creek crossings: Rodgers, Register, Dingley, Delaney and probably a few more. How deep and how fast running is anybodies guess. Talk through this with your friends before you go.

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KatyAnderson
Oh and there will definitely be several wet creek crossings: Rodgers, Register, Dingley, Delaney and probably a few more. How deep and how fast running is anybodies guess. Talk through this with your friends before you go.

Sunday, May 11, Delaney was just over ankle deep and Dingley we walked through all three forks without getting shoe laces wet. Even on the river there are spots where you could debate crossing. No roaring torrents anywhere. I would guess that in three weeks some of the creeks flowing into the TR will be mere trickles. TM was dry.

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Old Dude

Wow, it is a dry year.

Thanks for all the great advice. Sounds like the hikers bus would be our best option to get to WW.

I just called wilderness reservations today to get a permit, and the ranger told me that the creek crossings (Register creek was specifically mentioned) would still be pretty dangerous that time of year. That is definitely not something we are prepared deal with, so I held off making the reservation for now... mrcondron - did you cross Register creek on your May 11th trip / can anyone confirm the status of other creek crossings?

The other three people in the group went as far as Waterwheel only. Register is a few miles furthur West. A solo hiker did come by Sunday morning though. He came in from WW and didn't make any comments about watercrossing issues. Based on the flows fo Dingley and Delaney I would suspect the other creeks are well below normal also.

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Old Dude

So Waterwheel won't be at its best this year?

( ok, I'm stating the obvious )

so many things in Yosemite are at their best on the high water years . . . *sigh*

(OTOH it's still all worth it!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2014 10:11PM by qumqats.

DSF: Regarding the rangers warnings. They can only go by either the latest report they have received or if they haven't had any report, a "typical" years conditions. They play it on the safe side, which of course is good. But it sounds like they haven't had any report. I'd go by MrCondron's observation and consider it safe.

Here's a case in point of support of my post above: I just hiked the entire Pohono Trail. At Glacier Point, as I started the trail, there was a sign giving dire warnings of the trail being obliterated due to snow and hazerdous creek crossings. Since I remembered people on this forum saying they had done the trail recently w/o issue, I did the trail anyway.

Snow? Not a single flake on the trail. Creek crossings? The deepest creek (other than Bridalveil that has a bridge) came up just above my ankles.

When I got down to the Valley I reported my findings to the Wilderness Center, so the sign should be coming down now.

Jon