Yosemite National Park Hiking and Trail Guide
Where to hike, what you'll see, make the most of Hiking in Yosemite NP
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Hike to Clouds RestSunrise Lakes, Clouds Rest TrailsFrom Tenaya Lake to Sunrise Lakes is 10 miles round trip; to Clouds Rest is 14 miles round trip with 2,300-foot elevation gain. Climb to where the clouds rest, 9,926 feet high in the sky. Clouds Rest is higher than Half Dome, and is safer and easier to climb. In addition, Clouds Rest offers better views (some hikers say the best in the national park) than the famed Yosemite icon. From atop Clouds Rest, Yosemite’s largest granite face, savor a panorama of rounded domes and sharp ridges. While an easier hike than the one up Half Dome, Clouds Rest Trail is far from easy. The final part of the climb is very steep, an ascent over a narrow ridge with a steep drop-off on either side. Directions to trailhead: From Highway 120 (Tioga Pass Road) 9 miles west of the Tuolomne Meadows Visitor Center, and some 16 miles east of White Wolf, take the turnoff for the Tenaya Lake Walk-in Campground (at the southwest end of the lake). Leave your car in the large lot and begin your hike at the signs for Sunrise. The hike: Follow the signs for Sunrise High Sierra Camp, soon crossing Tenaya Creek and making your way across meadowland and among stands of lodgepole pine. A mile-and-a-half out, the ascents stiffens, cresting a ridge at 3 miles, where there’s a junction. Sunrise High Sierra Camp Trail heads left, while you continue straight (south), dropping from the ridgetop. All too soon you climb again, reaching another junction at the 5-mile mark. The left branching trail is a connector leading to Sunrise Creek and a junction with the John Muir Trail while you continue straight through thinning forest toward a rocky ridge. A quarter-mile from your goal, you crest this ridge, then carefully climb stacked layers of granite to the summit. Yosemite Hiking Trails >> |
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