Tuolumne Transportation Beginning

Seasonal service is now operational on the Tuolumne Shuttle. Service operates from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Service will operate through Labor Day.

Seasonal service is now operational on the Tuolumne Meadows Tour and Hikers Bus. Daily service departs Yosemite Lodge at 8:20 AM with the bus leaving Tuolumne Lodge for the return trip at 2:05 PM.

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eeek
Seasonal service is now operational on the Tuolumne Shuttle. Service operates from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Service will operate through Labor Day.

Seasonal service is now operational on the Tuolumne Meadows Tour and Hikers Bus. Daily service departs Yosemite Lodge at 8:20 AM with the bus leaving Tuolumne Lodge for the return trip at 2:05 PM.

Those times are relatively useless for a day hiker. I guess if you are staying in the valley, the morning works, ride up to the meadows then hike down. But if you are staying in Tuolumne and want to hike down and ride a bus back, that day, you are pretty much out of luck.

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hotrod4x5

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eeek

Seasonal service is now operational on the Tuolumne Shuttle. Service operates from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Service will operate through Labor Day.

Seasonal service is now operational on the Tuolumne Meadows Tour and Hikers Bus. Daily service departs Yosemite Lodge at 8:20 AM with the bus leaving Tuolumne Lodge for the return trip at 2:05 PM.

Those times are relatively useless for a day hiker. I guess if you are staying in the valley, the morning works, ride up to the meadows then hike down. But if you are staying in Tuolumne and want to hike down and ride a bus back, that day, you are pretty much out of luck.

For those staying in Tuolumne, taking the daily YARTS bus back from Yosemite Valley would be the better option (and a cheaper option too).

The daily YARTS bus leaves Yosemite Valley's Vistor Center at 5:00 PM and arrives at the Tuolumne Meadows Store at 6:50 PM on its way to its final destination, Mammoth Lakes. The cost for a one-way fare from Yosemite Valley to Tuolumne Meadows is only $8 vs. $14.50 for a one-way trip on the DNS Hikers Bus.

YARTS Hwy 395/Tioga Road Bus Schedule and Fares

New this year... they added some nice signs where the bus stops including a schedule.

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What are the two ends of the loop?

Olmstead Point and Tuolumne Lodge?

Use the free Tuolumne Meadows shuttle bus for service in the greater Tuolumne Meadows area from June through mid September (dates vary from year to year).

The shuttle provides service between Tuolumne Meadows and Olmsted Point every half hour between 7 am and 7 pm, as follows:

Tuolumne Meadows Lodge (7 am to 6 pm)
Dog Lake Parking
Tuolumne Meadows Wilderness Center
Lembert Dome
Tuolumne Meadows Campground and Store
Tuolumne Meadows Visitor Center
Cathedral Lakes Trailhead
Pothole Dome
East end of Tenaya Lake
Sunrise Lakes Trailhead (west end of Tenaya Lake)
May Lake Trailhead
Olmsted Point (7:30 am to 6 pm)

The shuttle also provides service between Tuolumne Meadows Lodge and Tioga Pass (with a stop at Mono Pass), as follows:

Leaves Tuolumne Lodge 9, Noon, 3 and 5. Leaves Mono Pass: 10 mins after and Leaves Tioga Pass 5 minutes later

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/tmbus.htm



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2011 06:03PM by hotrod4x5.

Is there a confirmed end date for the bus between Yosemite alley and Tuyolumne Meadows yet? No date on the Yosemite NPS website yet.

Do you need a reserved seat on this shuttle? What's the ticket price?

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Mom
Do you need a reserved seat on this shuttle? What's the ticket price?

No reserved seats, first-come, first-seated. And there's no fare for the shuttle. It's free, like the free Yosemite Valley shuttle. (But the Tioga Road shuttle uses far smaller buses (actually very large vans) than the Yosemite Valley Shuttle.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2011 06:48PM by plawrence.

I was referring to the Tuolumne Hikers Bus which leaves the valley at 8:20am. I will need to go up to Tuolumne to pick up my car. I'm doing a one-way hike from Tuolumne Meadows to Happy Isles.

Do I need to reserve a seat on that bus? Is there a charge? Is it often crowded?

I think you are referring to the Delaware North bus.
Check out this link:

http://www.yosemitepark.com/Activities_GuidedBusTours_TuolumneMeadows.aspx

Strangely, it does not seem to be linked from the NPS transportation website.

Several years ago this was not overly crowded and tickets could be purchased at various sites around the valley, but it looks like you can reserve earlier if you wish. Always better to have a ticket early I suppose.
Actually was a pretty good tour experience with a very talkative driver. Worth the cost in my opinion. It started at Curry Village, then has two other stops near Yosemite Lodge.
You might want to get on at Curry Village if you want your best pick of seats.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

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Frank Furter

Actually was a pretty good tour experience with a very talkative driver.

Well, he (or she) ought to be, since the bus driver doubles as the "tour guide" on the DNC Tuolumne Meadows Bus. And if you take the round-trip tour, the bus driver (as the tour guide) expects a tip.

To summarize, YARTS travels west into the Valley (from over near Mammoth Lakes) in the morning and returns eastward in the afternoon. If you want to go to TM in the afternoon, that is the bus to take.
If you want to go to TM in the morning, take the Delaware North Hiker Bus.


If you travel late in the season, be sure to check the schedules because in the past, YARTS and the DN Hiker bus did not end on the same days.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

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Mom
I was referring to the Tuolumne Hikers Bus which leaves the valley at 8:20am. I will need to go up to Tuolumne to pick up my car. I'm doing a one-way hike from Tuolumne Meadows to Happy Isles.

Do I need to reserve a seat on that bus? Is there a charge? Is it often crowded?

Your ticket is your reservation.

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Mom

I was referring to the Tuolumne Hikers Bus which leaves the valley at 8:20am. I will need to go up to Tuolumne to pick up my car. I'm doing a one-way hike from Tuolumne Meadows to Happy Isles.

Do I need to reserve a seat on that bus? Is there a charge? Is it often crowded?

For the DNC Hiker Bus you need to purchase a ticket ahead of time (though that can be as late as 5 minutes before departure from the Yosemite Lodge Activities desk). You can even reserve a seat before you arrive at the park.

Is there a charge? Yes. As I already mentioned in an earlier post on this message thread, the cost of a one-way ticket on the DNC hiker bus is $14.50 from Yosemite Valley to Tuolumne Meadows.

Is it often crowded? I wouldn't know, since I haven't taken it that often. But I have never had a problem purchasing a ticket for it even two hours before departure. A couple of times when I've taken the "hikers bus", there was only one bus. That bus transported the one-way hikers AND those who paid for the round-trip "guided" tour. The guided tour portion being just the bus driver explaining the sights along the way to and from Tuolumne Meadows. (In other words, the DNC guided tour bus often doubles as the hikers bus too. There's often NOT two separate buses. And there's not a separate tour guide on the bus, unlike the two-hour Valley Tour.)

Here's a link to the DNC webpage explaining the details of the Tuolumne Meadows Hikers Bus:
Yosemitepark.com: Tuolumne Meadows Hikers Bus

And as I noted in a previous message on this thread, YARTS also offers daily bus service from Yosemite Valley to Tuolumne Meadows. The YARTS bus leaves Yosemite Valley in the late afternoon from the Yosemite Valley's Vistor Center at 5:00 PM. The YARTS one-way fare to Tuolumne Meadows is only $8.

The driver expects a tip? Really? (Serious question). I've never seen anyone in dozens of trips tip them a dime.

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Ulysses61

The driver expects a tip? Really? (Serious question). I've never seen anyone in dozens of trips tip them a dime.

When the driver acts as the tour guide, yes.

Note: a tip is only expected on the DNC busses from passengers on the tour (i.e. making the round-trip from Yosemite Valley to Glacier Point and back, or the round-trip to and from Tuolumne Meadows).

No tips are expected from the one-way "hiker bus" passengers.

Some bus drivers even have made a point of "reminding" their round-trip passengers that tips are part of their compensation near the end of the tour when the tour bus is about to start dropping off their round-trip passengers at Curry Village, the Ahwahnee and at the Lodge. (A bit brazen I thought at the time.)