Re: backpacking north rim late may?

Hello. I'm new to this forum so please redirect me if this question is already answered. I've got permits for Upper Yosemite Falls at the very end of this month and am trying to get a sense of what the Yosemite Point/North Rim area will be like in terms of snow cover. I've been to this area before on a day hike but that was during the drought. Does that area usually keep snow late in the season during a heavy snow year? Might I find myself post holing and camping on snow?

Thanks!

Where exactly are you planning to camp?

By North Rim do you mean down Snow Creek?

Are you going down Snow Creek? Up North Dome? Up Lehemite? Up Indian Ridge?

If you plan on doing down Snow Creek then you will run into a LOT of snow.
If you only plan on going to Yosemite Point and back down... then you can avoid
almost all of the snow depending on where you planned on camping.

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Hi Chick-On! Thanks for getting back to me. Essentially we are going to go up Upper Yosemite Falls and come back down the same way. We plan to camp around the Yosemite Point area within the allowable boundaries. We are going to set up camp for the weekend and then day hike around. So we thought about checking out North Dome if the snow doesn't get in the way. I guess Day hiking or camping around El Capitan is an option for us too if the conditions are good. I don't think we are too concerned about snow so long as we don't have to camp on it.

El Cap will probably be delicious to get to...
If you following the trail ... Eagle Peak Meadows is notorious for being yummy...
Take a look at Badger Pass webcam... and that's about what it will look like
... only probably more snow...
Try to spy Lehemite Falls from the valley ... to get idea of how much flow from
Lehemite... I guess peeps have been stymied there in past... but anywho...
I'd probably go for North Dome before trying to get thru Eagle Peak Meadows
... YMMV
took this on way up towards Eagle Peaky area in Feb:
http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?17,87813,87815#msg-87815
(this is before Eagle Peak Creek junction area)
Only been up past CR Junction on JMT since... so... I don't know
exactly what up... but I wouldn't worry too much if goal is Yosemite Pointy.

We were quite surprised how dry it was on Don Cecil Trail in SEKI 2 weekends
ago ... never needed snowshooz or ran into much of any snow until
outside Kings at 8K+ around Lookout Peak...
So aspect is very important...

Since you going back down Yosemite Falls... you will have fun imo...

Go fur it

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Thanks for all the great info! One more question... Do you know of any good camp sites near the top of Yosemite Falls that wouldn't be too far from the rim and have established fire rings? I'm sure we can find sites around the area but we'd love to have an idea of where to look. We are going to be exhausted from hauling our packs up that steep trail and probably will want to set up camp not much farther from the top. At the same time, we'd like to be far enough away to avoid the crowds.