Hike Mount Dana

From Tioga Pass to Mt. Dana summit is 6 miles round trip with 3,100-foot elevation.

Mt. Dana, 13,050 feet high in the sky, is Yosemite’s second highest peak, and a climb to remember. Only Mt. Lyell is higher (by 61 feet), though it requires mountaineering skills to gain its summit.

The path ascending Mt. Dana is not a regularly maintained route, but a use trail, one established a long time ago. The route is the essentially the same one taken by Whitney Survey Party members William Brewer and Charles Hoffman, who first climbed the peak in 1863. Yosemite botanist extrordinaire, the late Dr. Carl Sharsmith, who worked more than a half-century in the park, helped design the modern route to reduce impact on the mountain’s considerable alpine flora.

Dana Meadows and the boggy areas around two ponds offer abundant wildflower displays, as do the higher, drier slopes. The seasonal sprinkling includes Indian paintbrush, alpine goldenrod, Columbine, spreading phlox and lots of lupine. Those clusters of blue you’ll spot above 12,000 feet in elevation are sky pilot, which bloom in July and August.

At 9,941 feet, Tioga Pass gives the hiker quite a headstart toward the summit. Ordinarily, to reach such a high High Sierra summit, a much longer approach, with a greater elevation gain is required. Because of the peak’s relatively short approach, Dana is one of the national park’s most popular peaks to climb.

You’ll need a map—and perhaps a scorecard—to identify and record all the peaks you’ll see from atop Mt. Dana.

From the peaks on the park’s western boundary—Mt. Lyell, Mt. Gibbs, Mt. Conness and more—to peaks in the heart of Yosemite—Mt. Hoffman, Tuolumne Peak—this is a panorama to remember. The view also encompasses Saddlebag and Ellery lakes, just outside the park and Mono Lake and the Mojave Desert far to the east.

Directions to trailhead: Drive to Yosemite National Park’s east entrance station on Highway 120 (Tioga Pass Road), some 12 miles east of Highway 395. Park in the lot south of the entrance station on the west side of the road. The trail begins on the east side.

The hike: Begin with a moderate ascent through Dana Meadows, often wildflower-strewn in summer and a short cruise through lodgepole pine forest. After 0.5 mile, the real work begins. The going gets steeper and rockier with switchback after switchback. Trail markers help you stay on the right route.

Past timberline, you climb to a large rock cairn, about two miles from the trailhead and 11,500 feet in elevation. Here at the towering cairn, you get a good view of Mt. Dana’s summit and say good-bye to the trail.

Choose from a variety of use trails/routes to ascend that last long mile (gaining 1,400 feet) to the summit.

Yosemite National Park Hiking and Trail Guide

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Hike Mount Dana