Re: Tenaya Lake to Valley Floor with Kids

So I am getting prepared to do the Tenaya Lake to Valley floor via Clouds Rest with my kids starting 6/30. I have done this hike a few times but not recently and never with kids. My son is 10, daughter is 7. I used to do this hike with the half dome summit added as a 2 day one nighter. With the kids I'm thinking 2-3 nights. So my plan is:

Sunday Camp at Trail Head
Monday (Camp near Cloud's rest)
Tuesday (Camp in Little Yosemite Valley)
Wednesday Out to Valley Floor

What I am worried about is the elevation on the first day. It's almost 2k up to Cloud's Rest and the altitude is a wild card on anyone but especially a seven year old. Maybe Hiking in a few miles on the Sunday and making day two camp past
Cloud's Rest is the way to go. If anyone has any suggestions I'd be very grateful to hear them.

I was going to do this last year but held off because I thought 6 was too young for the level of the hike.

I don't think there's any legal camping "near" the trailhead, assuming this is the Sunrise Trailhead. I believe you have to hike at least a mile or so from the road to be legal. In this case, your best camping is probably the lowest Sunrise Lake, although you'll have to climb roughly 1000' from the trailhead to this lake. Maybe better: take advantage of the Tuolumne Meadows backpackers' campground and acclimate there the night before you start backpacking, perhaps doing a few short hikes in the Tuolumne Meadows area that day.

All the camping "near" Clouds Rest will probably be dry by the end of June--your last water heading to Clouds Rest from the north will be the small creek that flows from Sunrise Mountain about 2 miles NE of Clouds Rest. The next reliable water south of the summit is Sunrise Creek, about 2.5 miles SW of Clouds Rest (again, as the bird flies). (I wouldn't rely on the small spring that flows south of CR from 9000' or the HD spring...)

thanks, that's good info to have. acclimatizing at tuolumne meadows is a great idea that i thnk i'll act on