3/9/24 – Day 1: Heat, waterfalls and leisure

• Yosemite Valley to Little Yosemite Valley (LYV) Campground via John Muir Trail (JMT) and Mist Trail
• 6.3km, 630m up
• 4 hours

The park has made it very easy for hikers offering the campground for a small fee, before and after your trip. It almost felt like a place to crash, like a couch at a friend’s house – it was always there as an option.

Yosemite is unique in that majority of the National Park is designated wilderness and that dispersed camping is allowed pretty much anywhere as long as you’re at least 6.5km (4 miles) from the trailhead and 30 odd meters away from a trail or water.

This was very new to me as in the past I’ve only camped at designated campsites in the past. Yosemite is also enormous at over 750,000 acres or roughly 3000km (squared) and to put it into scale – driving from the park boundary tollbooth to Yosemite Village took me 50 minutes. Shuttles that go around the park to places like Tenaya Lake or Tuolumne Medows take 45 minutes at least.

There was also a new set of dangers in the park – bears. Hundreds of black bears roam Yosemite and while they are not as aggressive as a Grizzly, you do not want to interact with them even if they’re only after your food. That’s why it’s required for all hikers to carry a bear canister – a big plastic drum that can only be opened by something as small as a coin.

Still jetlagged and tired from a long and stressful drive from San Francisco, I was up at sunrise among many other hikers who were staying at the backpackers campground. The night before was spent frantically packing my bear canister, which I quickly began to hate as after repacking it multiple times I realized all my food would not fit for the trip. Great. So right from the get-go, my trip was shortened from 4 nights to 3. Can’t say I was feeling too great about that.

My mood quickly changed as I made my way to the Happy Isles trailhead. The sun had only just come up, the Valley was cool, and the Merced River was flowing. It was an ethereal and tranquil few kilometers of walking up the Mist Trail. But it was steep though, step after step after step. The scale of Yosemite slowly revealing itself as I climbed up. Sheer granite blocks thousands of meters high dominated by pine trees was all I could see. Beautiful.

I’d arrived in Yosemite in the middle of a heatwave. And a hot heatwave even by Australian standards. The valley floor itself was hovering around 35 degrees Celsius which is way too hot for walking. Getting up and out of the Valley was the primary goal for today.

I’d made good time on the trail as within a few hours I was at the top of Nevada falls, occasionally stopping to chat to other hikers and take photos.

I eventually made it to my destination for the day of Little Yosemite Valley campground. A backpacker’s campground 600 meters above the valley with the Merced River running along side it. The time was 1pm and it was hot, so of course I had a swim and ate some food here.

I don’t like setting up camp so early in the day. It felt like I had more hiking in me, but the heat was incredibly taxing and the thought of pushing through to find a campsite beyond LYV wasn’t that enticing. I had a permit to climb Half Dome and I aborted the idea after thinking about it for a long time. I was due to go up Clouds Rest the next day and wanted to preserve my hiking legs and avoid putting myself in a dangerous situation climbing up Half Dome in the afternoon with temperatures of 35 degrees plus. Perhaps I could have done it during sunset, or not – I’ll never know.

So, feeling slightly defeated, I settled into LYV, found a good spot to camp and read my Kindle by the Merced, periodically taking a dip before I hopped into bed in preparation for one of the biggest days of hiking yet. A 1300 meter climb up and over Cloud’s Rest.

4/9/24 – Day 2: The highest on-trail point in Yosemite

• LYV to Sunrise Lakes via Clouds Rest Trail and JMT
• ~14km
• 9 hours, 1300m up

The alarm went at 4:30am at LYV. I wasn’t the only one up at this hour – many people were getting ready to climb Half Dome for sunrise or get an early start on the day to beat the heat. It was forecasted to be mid-30s (Celsius) again.

I set off from LYV up the trail towards the JMT junction and eventually the Clouds Rest trail. The first hour and a half were in pitch black, guided only by torch light. I had set off without consuming any food, only a liter of electrolytes as my plan was to snack on the climb up. I turned around and could see the moonlight illuminating Half Dome, and the torches of the hikers climbing the cables. Eventually the Milky Way (which was so bright and clear at that time it was unbelievable) faded and the sun began to shine on Yosemite.

I passed by some tents close to the JMT junction with Half Dome – a good camping spot I thought, but I wondered where they would source their water from.

I was climbing at a reasonable rate of 400m an hour, which put me on track for a summit at 9am-ish. However, the climb was tough, very tough. I would rest at every switchback (for which there were quite a few), soak in the landscape and snack on a bar or some trail mix. Witnessing sunrise on Half Dome and the surrounding areas was awesome. I even had a wild deer encounter about half-way up to the summit.

After a few more switchbacks, I had climbed a good 700 meters and the landscape had changed dramatically. I had climbed past the dense tree line that opened to huge granite pieces with beautiful views of Half Dome. At this point I was the highest I’d ever been. The altitude in Australia is nothing compared to anything in America. 3028m (Clouds Rest) isn’t exactly a Himalayan mountain or a 14er (a ‘14 thousand footer’), but the air was noticeably thinner up here. And it got thinner and thinner the closer I got to the summit. I came down with a stomachache (that I wouldn’t shake for the rest of the day), shortness of breath and a dry cough as I slowly trudged up the trail.

I was overtaken on the trail by an ultrarunner who had started 3 hours ago from the valley floor. I couldn’t quite believe he had run all the way up to Clouds Rest… on his way down, he told me the summit was empty and the views were beautiful. So, I kept on pushing.

After almost 5 hours of climbing, I made it to the top of Clouds Rest. My breath shallow as I stood before the most beautiful view I’d ever seen. 360-degree views of the Sierras and the highest on-trail point in Yosemite. Clear blue skies and minimal haze. What a treat it was. I was on top, literally and metaphorically.

My reverie was short-lived as the first of the day-hikers joined me on the summit coming from Tenaya Lake. It was nice to share stories and the view with others. I even met an Aussie girl from Sydney and a girl who I chatted to the day before at Nevada falls.

A wave of fatigue hit me as I came down from Clouds Rest. I’d not eaten or drank enough (I didn’t for the whole trip), and the altitude and heat were affecting me. After a mini siesta out of the sun, I made my way down and along the Snow Creek Trail passing through huge granite boulders and tightly packed trees before a gradual climb up to the junction for Sunrise Lakes.

I ran into a couple of hikers and walked with them to Sunrise Lakes. One of them gave me a ginger sweet that apparently was good for stomachs impacted by altitude, and it helped.

I made it to Sunrise Lakes at about 3pm and set up camp and had a swim. An ethereal spot for the night as I watched a beautiful sunset over the lake, listening to distant chatter of other hikers. It was a long and tough day but incredibly rewarding. Sunrise Lakes was the perfect place to finish for the day.

5/9/24: Day 3 – Tenaya Lake and Snow Creek Magic

• Sunrise Lakes to Snow Creek via Tenaya Lake and Snow Creek Trail
• 17km ~250m up
• 8 hours

The sunrise at Sunrise Lakes was surprisingly lack-luster compared to the sunset from the previous night. I woke up after a patchy sleep and hit the trail, foregoing breakfast (again), nibbling on a couple bars and an electrolyte drink. My plan was to have breakfast at Tenaya Lake and assess from there.

It was all downhill to Tenaya Lake, and a popular trail too. I passed dozens of day-hikers, all of whom were going to Clouds Rest. I felt like my ascent of Clouds Rest from LYV the day prior felt sweeter and more earnt than simply day-hiking it from Tenaya Lake as it was a shorter climb up and most people had no heavy backpacks to carry.

I arrived at Tenaya Lake after a rocky 400m descent where I found a quiet spot by the water to cook up some oats. I’d realized I’d only been eating around ~2200 calories a day as the bear canister was full of bulky dehydrated meals, not enough snacks and basically no lunch apart from plain tortillas. I was surprised by my poor approach to food on this trip.

I was feeling the hunger bad at this point. I felt fatigued, sore, and was in a bit of a negative state of mind. Looking back, its amazing how much your sleep and food intake can impact your mood. I hadn’t had a full night sleep since arriving to America almost a week ago. Jetlag, stress and general unease about being in a new country alone was beginning to accumulate in some serious fatigue. I was having oats in the most beautiful spot ever, but my mind was thinking of other things.

On the map, Snow Creek looked like a boring spot. Densely wooded forest with a footbridge to cross the stream. That is what I thought until I had a peculiar encounter while eating my oats. A paddleboarder, sipping whiskey at 9am paddled by me and we began chatting. I explained my journey, my plan for today and he told me Snow Creek had some beautiful campsites very close to the edge with great views of Half Dome. He also told me about waterholes deep enough you could jump into and urged me to stay there.

So, I packed up and headed on my way to Snow Creek. As I started to circle back towards Half Dome and the Valley, I descended into what felt like a new biome – gone were the dotted pine trees and huge granite blocks, hello deep, dark and thick forests. It felt like prime bear territory, this was reinforced by spotting very visible bear prints.

It was a slow going 3 or 4 hours trapesing along the trail. It was hot, I was tired, hungry and fatigued. Even a small 100m climb took it out of me as I needed to rest more frequently. I’d finished the last of my favorite fig-blueberry bars and was ready to give up and go home.

But the views kept me going, as the last cleared section of trail before descending to Snow Creek provided me with fantastic views of Clouds Rest all the way to Half Dome.

Descending 400 or so meters to Snow Creek was long, tiring and very hot. This was really a theme of the trip – tiring, hot, not enough food. All of these snowballed into a bad mental state that when I arrived to Snow Creek, I wasn’t even that excited. The sun was baking me alive as I walked around finding a good camp spot. I eventually found a flat enough spot to pitch my tent, right in front of the view of Half Dome. As I walked closer to the edge, it felt like I could touch the side of Half Dome itself. It was a magical place to camp.

The Tenaya Lake whiskey man was right about the waterholes. Freezing cold waterhole that was deep enough to fully submerge in. It was cold, refreshing, but I was alone and wished I had someone to share this beautiful campsite with.

I set up my tent, and watched the sun go down over Half Dome and the Valley. The wind picked up as well and battered my tent and made for a truly awful night’s sleep. I had picked the spot for the aesthetic photos rather than being sheltered from the elements, which was a mistake as my sleep debt was accumulating at a dangerous rate.

6/9/24: Day 4 – Return to the baking hot Valley

• Snow Creek to Yosemite Valley via Snow Creek Trail
• 5km
• 3 hours

It was a steep switchback riddled 1000-meter descent to the Valley all of which I was molested by gnats but after a few hours of walking, I was following the flat Valley loop trail all the way to the backpacker’s campground. I spent the rest of the day and night there, exploring the Valley, eating food, conversing with fellow backpackers and sharing stories. In the end, it was an awesome way to finish a very difficult but rewarding backpacking trip.

I had only covered 45km but with 2300m of climbing, hot temperatures and not enough food, I was satisfied and had seen a lot that the park had to offer. Vernal and Nevada Falls, LYV, Clouds Rest, Sunrise Lakes, Tenaya Lake, Olmsted Point and Snow Creek was a solid list of things done. Yosemite – what a place! Hard to describe the true scale and beauty of the park and after feeling inspired when back in the Valley I picked up the John Muir Trail National Geographic guide... Who knows what that means… until next time.