Yosemite Valley to Tuolumne in a Day
Words by Dave Shuey. Photo by Noémi Shuey.
Is it the challenge of will, the striving of physicality or a yearning to achieve that propels us to push past our perceived limitations? I personally have never run a marathon and could see this as a great challenge. Yet there are many that pursue ultra-marathons several times annually and possibly think little of this as an ambitious objective. There is a saying that’s paraphrased, “as good as you think you are, there’s always someone out there who can kick your ass.” Now while this adage should be considered to keep oneself humble, there is even more to be said of pushing your own limitations to achieve objectives that you personally find difficult, and thusly rewarding, without concern for what others may think. It is with this ambitious focus that leads me to ponder my own goals for hiking, climbing and skiing; and in turn, how the proposition of hiking from Yosemite Valley to Tuolumne Meadows in a single day came to fruition.
Since I was a young child, being introduced to our natural world via the National Parks System, Yosemite has always served as my version of Mecca. The Valley, with its serene meadows separating shear walls of granite two to three thousand feet high on either side, was to me, the epitome of a natural wonder. While this locale encompasses the lion’s share of the park's grandeur, embarking on a hike to Yosemite’s high country offers an escape from the crowds to an expanse of protected lands of unparalleled beauty. Save from the throng of roughly 400 daily participants hiking towards the cables route of Half Dome, upon leaving the top of Nevada Falls, it is rather rare to see someone without the cumbersome load of an overnight trekking pack. Since the age of ten, I myself have explored this majestic terrain by the same means while backpacking to various backcountry camps over the course of several days.
A common way to immerse yourself in some of the best locations of the park is with a three-to-four day trek from Yosemite Valley to its northern and thinner air counterpart of Tuolumne Meadows, and back. Traveling between these two prominent locations, typically via one of two routes, provides a truly breathtaking glimpse of some of the park’s more sought after vistas. A hiker along either route will pass by waterfalls and shear cliffs, forested valleys and grassy alpine meadows, smooth domes and vertical sweeps of granite.
Both of these popular routes begin at the Happy Isles trailhead and will take you up a valley carved by glaciers and the Merced River, past Vernal Falls and up to the precipice of Nevada Falls about 2000 feet higher. One can ascend this valley via the scenic and steeper Mist Trail or the longer yet more fairly graded John Muir Trail to the same point atop the falls. From Little Yosemite Valley, just past the top of Nevada Falls, the two northbound routes separate for the remainder of the hike until converging again at Tuolumne Meadows. The eastern route travels through the now-burned woods of Little Yosemite Valley towards Merced Lake, which serves as a great place to spend the night. The trail then continues past meadows and granite peaks to Lyell Canyon and Tuolumne Meadows. The second, and no-less-popular trail, follows the John Muir Trail and continues past the top of the falls to the Half Dome trail junction, before veering off towards the junction below Clouds Rest. It then follows a beautifully forested trail over hills to the meadows near Sunrise High Sierra Camp, and onwards over Cathedral Pass and Lakes before falling to Tuolumne Meadows. Both are truly superb trails for even relatively novice backpackers, and combine to form one of the most excellent loops in the High Sierra for a distance of roughly fifty miles. Just last fall in fact, my wife and I trekked the same loop ourselves, in the counter-clockwise direction, over the course of four days.
As greatly rewarding as backpacking is, spending every waking moment for several days immersed in the woods, there is something to be said about leaving all that weight behind and simply day hiking. There’s something equally exciting about challenging oneself to achieve as much as possible within a single day. This theory, objective or goal goes back decades, or even centuries, to adventurers and explorers attempting to pack as much as possible into any given 24-hour period. Some rock climbers challenge themselves by climbing as many pitches or feet as possible within a day. Long-distance, endurance runners are constantly pushing the limits on what is achievable within a day. The Nose of El Capitan in a Day, the Leadville Trail 100 foot race in a day, cycling a century on a mountain bike in a day.
In. A. Day. Three short and simple words, that in combination, really get my heart racing! Perhaps it is the in-a-day stories of athletes before and around me which tickle my senses. Whatever the origin of this fascination, these words, as of late, have raised my ambition through the roof. This summer, I attempted the Complete Exum Ridge of the Grand Teton and the Ten Mile Traverse in Summit County, both in a day. Both of these objectives are undeniably spectacular, yet each encompass about 17 miles and 8000 feet of vertical gain, and I wouldn’t for a moment think any less of someone attempting them over the course of a couple days.
Among fit outdoor athletes, aside perhaps from summiting “fourteeners,” day hiking rarely inhibits much pomp and circumstance. Take a look at day hiking guidebooks for any given region and you'll see that the chosen trails rarely exceed ten miles round trip, with minimal elevation gain. I’m no ultra-runner, yet I still like to rack up the miles; so personally, I love day hikes. Plus, if the milage and vertical gain really pack a punch, sign me up! This combination of desiring long and hard hiking while being completable within a single day requires a bit of outside-the-box thinking. Looking for marathon length distance, far away from the run-of-the-mill asphalt recreation path, with vertical gain and scenic vistas to boot? Boy, do I have the day for you!
Hiking from Yosemite Valley, along the John Muir Trail, to Tuolumne Meadows in a day provides all these incentives and more. Not your grandma’s day hike, this long day travels 24 miles and climbs over 7000 feet along its course, yet no cumbersome overnight pack is required. Instead, a light-and-fast day pack is all you need, along with a hearty dose of ambition and physicality.
The idea of hiking the Valley to Tuolumne in a day (VTIAD) came about while my wife and I were planning our trek of the John Muir Trail (JMT) traveling from Yosemite to Mt. Whitney. Over the last several years, the immense popularity of this 220 mile thru-hike has made the challenge of obtaining a permit almost as hard as the trek itself. After not receiving a permit reservation some six months in advance, we chose to attempt getting one of the ten walk-up permits available each day out of Tuolumne Meadows. This method would allow us to begin our trek, yet with an altered commencement in Lyell Canyon east of Tuolumne, the first 24 miles hiking out of the Valley would be neglected. The purist in me found this lack of a continuous hike from the trail’s true start at Happy Isles to be a disappointing compromise. Nevertheless, without an overnight stay along this portion, a permit is not required, and thus out of this predicament the VTIAD idea was born.
With kind chauffeuring by my mother-in-law, Noémi and I left our campsite in Tuolumne Meadows and were dropped off at the Happy Isles trailhead in the Valley. Donning day packs with layers, snacks, first-aid and a couple liters of water and filter, we departed the trailhead at 6:00 am, just as the pre-dawn light was beginning to emerge. At this point, one hardly feels out of place with simply a day pack as all the other hikers we encountered were geared up for a day hike of Half Dome’s cables route. Just past the bridge over the Merced River, below Vernal Falls, the trail forks to offer a choice of the Mist Trail to the left or the JMT on the right. Without the steep rocky steps of the Mist Trail, the JMT is adequate for horse and mule travel and you’ll encounter a fair share of road apples with their accompanying aroma. Nevertheless, I’d take the consistently graded switchbacks over the high rock steps any day. Making good time in the dim coolness of early morning, we reached the top of Nevada falls, some 2000 feet above the trailhead in two hours. Since the climbs are typically the hardest portions of a hike, it is reasonable to split the VTIAD into four sections of vertical gain, and we felt satisfied having completed the first challenging section.
We received a brief respite with a relatively flat section through the beginning of Little Yosemite Valley, before rising again with the second climb after veering left towards the upper Half Dome trail. Upon reaching this next junction, something fairly noteworthy happens. All your fellow day hikers turn left towards the large and in charge Ol’ Halvsie while the backpackers following the JMT continue on to the right. From this point, we would encounter not a single other day hiker until reaching the Cathedral Lakes section some fifteen miles beyond. This was both a freeing feeling to be so light compared to our heavy, gear laden counterparts, yet also a bit unnerving as we would have to make it all the way to Tuolumne without the safety net of overnight gear. I took this notion as motivating, with a go-big-or-go-home mantra, while also understanding that just to get home we’d also have to go big.
Six miles into the hike, you're given a moderate section of rolling hills for another four miles to an elevation of about 8550 feet while passing the junction leading off towards Clouds Rest. This scenic and mellow portion of trail provides a golden opportunity to catch your breath, take in your surroundings and recover pumping muscles before the next butt-kicker of a hill. With word of minimal water sources higher up, we took a moment to filter water from a trickling stream, while refueling with snacks. Rested and eager, we got our thighs moving and set our sights on reaching 9700 feet over the next 1.5 miles.
If you’ve been to this region before, you know the astonishing beauty which opens up before you at the meadows near Sunrise Creek. Across the golden grasses to the east, your eyes are drawn up to the sparkling white domes and pinnacles that give Yosemite’s High Country an unforgettable aura. While we each caught our breath from the climb, we gazed towards the peaks and the darkening skies surrounding them. From this vantage point, we could see the storms building and colliding in the direction of our destination. Our immediate future could prove tricky.
As we hiked along the edge of this moderately exposed meadow, electrical activity began producing foreboding shouts of thunder. Our pace quickened, seeking safer ground and we paused for a quick break amongst a small grove of trees. While eating sandwiches of avocado and comté cheese on a fallen tree bench, the first rain drops reached us and didn’t hesitate to escalate. We donned hard shell pants and jackets just as the hail began. For the next several miles, pebble-sized rounds of hail pounded our bodies while we hiked. Our cold hands, raised and exposed while using trekking poles, received a bashing from the falling ice. It is amazing how fast you can hike in such conditions without even making a conscious effort to do so. Immersed in hail and thunder, we unleashed our energy, transforming footsteps into miles.
As if the storm was responding positively to our relentless intentions, it abated just enough to inspire the confidence necessary to venture to the more exposed elevation of Cathedral Pass. This final ascent of the day proved thankfully uneventful as we wound our way up the trail under the otherworldly formations of Matthes Crest and Cathedral Peak. I daydreamed of another popular in-a-day objective with a hike, climb and scramble of Cathedral Peak, Matthes Crest and Tenaya Peak. Within this inspiring terrain surrounding us, it seemed virtually impossible for our bank of ambition to run dry before the hike’s end.
Upon reaching the top of this pass, the day’s vertical gain is mostly under your belt. For the first time since leaving the Half Dome junction, perky tourists with light day packs proved a welcome sight while sanctioning the understanding that Tuolumne Meadows was within reach. With only slight precipitation lacing our jackets, our stoke was high as we passed day hikers along the descent to the grassy valley below. Before we knew it, the signage for the start of the Cathedral Lakes trail appeared, denoting our arrival to Tuolumne Meadows. What seemed so distant half a day earlier was now within spitting distance. Only a short rolling stroll through dribbling rain stood between us and our destination at the Meadow's campground.
At 4:30pm we walked into camp with grins ear to ear. After 10.5 hours we had completed 24 miles with a vertical gain just over 7000 feet and a loss of 2500 feet. We were beat, yet at the same time, immensely satisfied. Over beers, bourbon and a warm meal we laughed and reminisced of our day on the trail.
Days such as this are not entirely common and certainly not easily forgotten. These experiences must be earned through grit and determination, yet with proper ambition, are achievable for many. Our VTIAD hike isn’t just for hardened trail lords, but is something that can be replicated by any experienced hiker looking for an all day adventure. No permit is required; just 24 miles of ambition.
