Re: Tenaya Lake to Happy Isles via Cloud's Rest and Half Dome

There are a couple trip reports around from people who have done all 22 miles of this in one day. Would this be impossible to do without running? I am not a trail runner but am in pretty-close-to-marathon shape, and I was thinking of trying this as a day hike in September. If weather conditions were not good, I would just do the normal route to Half Dome from Happy Isles. I guess I'm wondering if anyone here has ever done the longer route as a day hike. Thanks.

The s/w I have has it < 20 miles. If you are in close-to-marathon shape this should be simple.
20 mile dayhike is not a big deal. There are plenty of people out there that do 2x that.
Go for it.

(you should be able to find reports of dayhiking CR and HD from Happy Isles... a much more
impressive feat)

It's not difficult at all if you're in shape. The better route (to me), is to just hike the 22 miles from Sunrise to the Sunrise HSC and on the JMT, down the Mist Trail and into Happy Isles. It's a very straightforward route. I sleep at Curry Village and return the next day to my car that I leave at Sunrise. The elevation gain is all on the second leg, not the first leg, which is only about 2200 elevation gain. It's about 5,500 coming back.

You don't have to trail run at all. My husband and I hike the 22 mile first leg in about 7:30 and the return is about 9:15. That's hiking fast with limited breaks, but absolutely no running. Go for it, it's a great hike!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2010 09:29AM by Ulysses61.

Just so I know your human, that's 7 hrs 30 mins travel time for 22 miles one way, not a mile in 7 min 30 sec for 22 miles right?

Thanks guys. It sounds like these routes are doable as day hikes. I might do Tenaya Lake to Cloud's Rest to Half Dome and then head back to Tenaya using the JMT. I think this is about 20 miles long too. This will help me avoid having to take a shuttle or spening a night in the valley.

About 26 via Sunrise HSC and Sunrise Lakes on way back.
(you're not saving anything elevation wise there... but nice route! )

About 23 and 500 ft. less elevation if you come back via Forsyth instead.

Either one of those is much more difficult than just going HI.

Good luck.

Thanks again for the correct distances. It looks like I am getting my trails mixed up. Is Forsyth the most direct route back to Tenaya from Half Dome? Do you know whether these trails are clearly signed? I am heading for Kings Canyon the next day and spending the night in the valley and/or taking the shuttle will push back my schedule pretty seriously.

All the trails are clearly signed. I'd post the actual sign but my head started
hurting looking through over 800 pix of different signs...

Going back over Clouds vs. JMT/Forsyth is a wash in mileage... not elevation.
JMT all the way to Sunrise HSC is a couple miles further.

I did Tenya Lake to Half Dome and down to the Valley in one day. At that time of my life I wasn't in shape at all, but I know my body and the how far I can push it. Highly recommended, very quite until you hit the trail to Half Dome.

I led a Sierra Club group of around 20 hikers up to Cloud's Rest, and was very happy to get them on peak without mishap. At the peak, a young lady came bopping up from below. I asked her if she had come from the Valley, and she said "Yes". Then I asked if she was going through to Tenaya, and she said her group was going back to the Valley. Feeling a little smug about my group, I said "Well, you might as well hit Half Dome on the way down". She said "Did that ". Silence. "Well", she said, "This is a warm-up for Bad Water to Telescope".