Re: Crossing Yosemite Valley while backpacking

Hi everyone,

I'll be visiting Yosemite and Inyo National Forest in late August for a 10-days backpacking trip. I'm planning to obtain a permit for Old Big Oak Flat Road trailhead, start my trip from there, reach Tuolumne Meadows in 4 days, leave Yosemite through Mono Pass and reach Red's Meadow in another 4 days, head to Duck Lake and finally exit the wilderness at Duck Pass trailhead in another 2 days.

While hiking from Old Big Oak Flat Road to Tuolumne Meadows, I would really love to reach Happy Isles and head toward TM following the JMT. However, Yosemite park site states: "Hikers may not pass through Yosemite Valley on a single wilderness permit" and "Any travel through Yosemite Valley invalidates the permit". My question is, what does the site mean when talking about "pass through Yosemite Valley"? If I manage to outskirt Yosemite Village, without crossing it (e.g, by following part of the Valley Loop Trail), should I still own an additional permit for Happy Isles to continue my trip? In other words, does outskirting Yosemite Village count as a continuos wilderness travel?

Thank you so much for every insight and advice you can give.
Bests,
Francesco

Don't mean to be a bummer, but I don't think that iteneary works for a couple of reasons, unless you get multiple permits.
Re: the valley. You would not be able to leave the north rim via the Yose falls trail without violating the rule.
You might be able to take the snow creek trail down to mirror lake and swing over to the mist trail, but youll need to do your homework on that trail. It's the steepest around, and you would not quite reach happy isles.

Your real problem is there are only two permits that allow you to exit Yosemite over the donhue pass. "The only two trailheads that provide access to the full John Muir Trail beyond Yosemite are Happy Isles to Past LYV (Donohue Pass eligible) and Lyell Canyon (Donohue Pass eligible)"
It looks like you don't have a permit yet so you need to work-up some alternate plans to try to achieve part or all of what you want when attempting to get permits.
That trip will take a lot of planning/homework.
Good luck to you.

Thank you for your reply Coolburn, it's very useful!

Regarding your latest point, I'm planning to leave Yosemite through Mono Pass, not through Donohue Pass. From Mono Pass I was thinking to head toward Koip Peak Pass, then to Gem Lake and finally to rejoin JMT around Garnet Lake. Based on mileage and height gain/loss, I think I can cover the distance between TM and Red's Meadows in 4 days or so, but please tell me so if you think that's unrealistic.

Regarding the valley, if I got your point correctly, the wilderness permit expires the moment you leave the North Rim to approach Yosemite Village? If so, is it correct to say you can't even just re-supply at Yosemite Village without having to get a new wilderness permit?

SO if you are anywhere near yosemite village, your permit is invalid....You need to be on a wildeness trail, and the only one I see is around mirror lake. That's not to say that others dont exist, but yosemite village for re-supply is nobody's idea of compliant.
How do you plan to get to Mono pass from TM? Tioga Road?
I think you need a Mono Pass Permit, as I dont any trail that connects to Mono pass from TM. That would mean you need a different permit for the first part of the trip.
I've hiked the north rim from tamarack flat campground. There are lots of other trailheads to reach the north rim, any of which would be more enjoyable than starting from Big oak flat road, so you have a lot of options for that part.
You can possibly incorporate a night in the valley backpackers camp to help you obtain a permit for the second part.

I've hiked the JMT/PCT from Reds to TM, and its doable in 4 days 3 nights (@40 miles). I can't speak to your Mono pass route in 4 days. But you will want to spend some time in the gem lakes/ thousand Island/ garnet lakes area.

Coolburn, if he comes down the Snow Creek trail, he's at the bottom end of Tenaya Canyon, which as far as wilderness designations go is the eastern end of Yosemite Valley. And Happy Isles - the beginning of the JMT - is in Yosemite Valley, being one of the bus stops. So for the proposed itinerary, a second permit from Happy Isles would be necessary.

What I don't get is (a) where he plans to camp in the TM area - there's no camping for backpackers in TM (unless it's right before or right after a trip), and (b) how he's going to get to Mono Pass while staying in wilderness areas where camping is permitted - the closest such area to Mono Pass as the crow flies is the Vogelsang area, b/c there's no camping within Yosemite in the in areas that are northeast of Vogelsang and south of Tioga Road (like Lyell Canyon). No camping east of there north of Tioga Road either. So whether staying on trails or going X-country, it would mean a long day getting from Vogelsang to Mono Pass and out of the park, if you're a fast hiker.

Good points Mr. NQTG!

I do think he may technically still be in the wilderness if he stayed on the eastern side of the Mirror Lake Loop trail until the start of the JMT. That way he hasn't gone "through the valley" or crossed any roads. If it was me, I'd call the ranger.

Additionally, there is no TM campground, Backpackers or otherwise this year. Basically, he would have to camp around Cathedral lakes (if on JMT) and then somewhere on the Mono Pass. That's a long way to travel, and he still needs to get the Mono Pass permit.

He may need three permits!

Personally, I think he is going to have to tweak his plan, based on his priorities. and do a BUNCH more research.

Francesco, Have you been in the Yosemite wilderness? all three of those areas are amazing, and highly sought after.
If you are trying to knock off the first piece of the JMT, its hard.
You might want to consider using the YARTS (or Aramark hikers bus, but highly unreliable) to get you from or to a trailhead on the Tioga Road, which might allow you to go from a trailhead to the valley, camp at BP camp a night, then bus back to different trailheat to leave Yose to get to reds meadow area. You might score the donahue Pass exit or the Mono pass. I'm not sure how the "walk-up" permits will be handled. The website still mentions 2022, but hopefully they will release permits like they did last year.

The wilderness boundary around Yosemite Valley is 200' above the valley floor, so the entirety of the Valley Loop Trail and Mirror Lake Loop Trail are outside the wilderness. If a backpacker descends to either of those trails they have exited the wilderness and would need a new wilderness permit to re-enter and continue their trek.

Slight quibble with what Mr. NQTG posted. You can legally camp a little closer to TM than Vogelsang. You can go down to Lyell Fork or part way down Rafferty Creek, so long as you remain at least four miles from TM proper. The arrows on the Yosemite Wilderness Trailheads map show the required distance. Even if you were as close as possible to TM, it would still be about 12.5 miles to Mono Pass.

And I emailed the wilderness permit folks about how last-minute permits would be handled this year and they said it will be the same as in 2022 (i.e., the remaining 40% become available online 7 days out).

Coolburn, NQTG, thank you very much for your replies, they are very insightful.

As Coolburn correctly guessed, I've never been in Yosemite National Park and I'm still struggling a little with wilderness permits. From your answers and from additional researches, it seems to me that it's quite impossibile to shortcut to JMT on a single permit when starting off at Old Big Oak Flat Road. Moreover, I get your points on the difficulty of getting to Mono Pass without invalidating the wilderness permit, so I think I'll change my itinenary.

Before replanning, I have a final question that I hope you'll be so kind to answer. Can I resupply at the TM store, even now that the campground is closed, without invalidating the permit? The Inyo National Forest Wilderness permit does not expire when long distance hikers exit wilderness for a reasonable period of time necessary for resupply; does this hold also for Yosemite, and for TM in particular?

Thank you so much again!

*EDIT: Thank you also to FatFlatlander, expecially on checking permits situation for 2023!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/2023 09:22AM by Francesco.

If starting at BOFR and wishing to exit the park on the eastern side, you'd head across the north rim of yosemite valley and around Snow Creek, then either (a) continue toward Tenaya Lake, cross the outlet creek and head up toward the sunrise lakes, and follow the JMT out of the park...but you need a permit to cross out via donohue pass, or (b) cross tioga road and head toward may lake, continue toward glen aulin, then head northeast (part of the way along the PCT) and then follow the trail along Return Creek and exit at summit pass (look at CalTopo if you haven't discovered that yet - https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=38.03413,-119.33393&z=14&b=mbt). Or, as noted in the previous posts, if you're a good hiker you might be able to get to Mono Pass and exit there.

I don't know if the TM store will be open this year. There's been a LOT of snow and even with the campground open it would likely open late, and I don't know if Aramark is going to bother opening the store this year at all (or will be able find people to staff it).

Random replies:

Thanks for confirming 2023 permit process.
Also, thanks for wilderness boundary definition.
Aramark has been frequently profiled in this forum, but the readers digest version is Aramark is unreliable, especially around tuolumne meadows.
You absolutely CANNOT trust the information on the website, and if you call some really nice people will have no real information.
I would not consider using TM store for re-supply even if it is supposedly open this summer. Some days it won't be.
However, if the store, or grill is open and your permit is for a trail that passes by, then you ay be able to grab some grub or a burger.

Finally, pay attention to altitude differences. I use this website for trails inside of yosemite. https://www.traillon.com/map/yosemite-national-park