Re: Little Yosemite Valley Questions

Folks - your site is outstanding! Thanks so much for all the passion and excitement for all things Yosemite National Park, your enthusiasm is contagious.

I would like some information/advice regarding using Little Yosemite Valley as sort of a basecamp for hiking in June...a group of about 10 people, camping out for about 4 to 5 days. My family of three have been to Yosemite before (we stayed in Curry Village but only did Nevada Fall and Upper Yosemite Falls as day-hikes) but this is the first trip for the rest of the group.

What are the must-see/must-do hikes if you've never been there before?

Can we use our Wilderness Permit for LYV to use the cables on Half Dome? Do we need other identification?

Where is the best place to camp to hike both Half Dome and Cloud's Rest?

Aside from the extra weight, what is the largest tent size you would recommend for LYV and how packed is the place mid June?

Thanks for the help.

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NCJohn
What are the must-see/must-do hikes if you've never been there before?

IMHO you are crazy if you don't hike up the Merced River until at least the bridges
where you cross the river (where the Bunnell Avalanche occurs).
If possible hike to Merced Lake and back... or pick up your gear and just go to
Merced Lake and camp there.

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John
Can we use our Wilderness Permit for LYV to use the cables on Half Dome? Do we need other identification?

It's my understanding they stamp your permit now for the cables. But yes, you can use the cables with your
wilderness permit. Just ask when you get your permit and all will be clear.

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John
Where is the best place to camp to hike both Half Dome and Cloud's Rest?

Doing both in a day MAY be way too much. From LYV it's 3700 ft. up to Clouds Rest.
Half Dome is 1100 ft. lower than Clouds... but that doesn't mean it's only 1100 more to do both.
Anyway, 99.9% of people will say to camp at the Clouds/JMT trail junction. There is water
there year round. It's "only" 1000 ft. higher than LYV.. If you have the time.. just dayhike one
one day and one the other from LYV

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john
Aside from the extra weight, what is the largest tent size you would recommend for LYV and how packed is the place mid June?

Prob. will be mosquitos. Bring whatever you want that you can carry that makes you happy.
LYV will be packed but it won't matter. Your tent will not be a circus tent.
When we started out backpacking we used a car camping tent for a bit of time.
Worked just fine. It was something like 8 feet circular dome.

Have fun... if you have a permit already... you're there

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Chick-on,

I repeat, thanks for all the help...although you've predicated a little more ambition and physical conditioning to me than i intended.

I was thinking of our group hiking Cloud's Rest on one day and Half Dome another day...although I've read the trip reports of some of you IRONMEN types that seem to regard the trip from Tenaya lake to CR, HD, then on to Happy Isles as just a good stretch of the legs.

As a matter of fact, as it turns out, it was only an afterthought of one of my travel companions that we even have an option of doing HD... they thought they might be pushing it to get HD done as a Day Hike (with all the other hiking we wanted to do) so why not camp out somewhere along the way....so... back in late December I sent off the request for 10 Wilderness Permits into LYV - with private convictions we would certainly get Day Hike Cable Permits....NOT - everybody in the group got skunked in the lottery.

Now with you mentioning Merced Lake, I'm thinking I'd hate not having that on the itinerary as well...not to mention all the recent posts regarding the 4 mile & Panorama trails. I sure don't see another Yosemite trip on the horizon anytime soon coming from the east coast....decisions...decisions.

Ah. I answered your question w/r to "What are the must-see/must-do hikes if you've never been there before?"
as "you've never been to Little Yosemite Valley".
That's how you should read my reply.

If you have never been to the park before then you have a daunting task.
You can pick almost anything out of the valley and it will be both challenging
and gorgeous. Tioga Road will be open then so you can dayhike from Tenaya Lake to top
of Clouds Rest. Snow will not be an issue then.

You have LYV permits... so you can do HD if you want to.

Have fun

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NCJohn,

Since you have LYV permits and have Half Dome on the mind then definitely do Half Dome. If you felt pressed for time and/or energy you might pass up Clouds Rest in favor of a trip past Bunnell Cascade and up to Merced for a night. There is also another backpacker's camp at the eastern end of LYV that might aid your efforts and be slightly less crowded. Another possibility is to go to Meced Lake and return towards Clouds Rest, using the trail junction chick-on mentioned as an overnighter. Then proceed on to Clouds Rest and back down to the western end of LYV. That method allows you to see a lot by allocating part of the trip to a loop and not covering the same ground twice. My 2 cents.