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[Yosemite]

Tuolomne Meadows Bus Shuttle - Wed. Sept. 4

Travelling to and visiting Yosemite National Park. How to get there, what to see or do, and other Yosemite trip advice.

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Tuolomne Meadows Bus Shuttle - Wed. Sept. 4

Postby askus3 » Fri Aug 02, 2013 7:43 am

I am planning a 3 day backpack and the first day is 17 miles to Merced Lake High Sierra Camp, so I planned on leaving my car at Sunrise Lakes trailhead at Tenaya Lake on Tioga Road as I want to get a very early start on Sept. 2. So I did not want to take the bus shuttle (not early enough) on the front end of the trip. My concern is will the shuttle bus service be running on Wed. Sept. 4? I have read from two different sources that service stops Labor Day weekend and also mid-September. Also if on a limited schedule, when exactly mid-day will the buses run out of Tuolomne Meadows. I am retuning on Wed. Sept. 4 from Vogelsang HSC and will need to get back to my car. What alternatives do I have if the bus service is not running.

Look forward to hearing from you so I can plan accordingly.

I am allowing 4 hours 8:30-12:30 for the hike out. Is this reasonable? It is mostly downhill and a 2mph pace seems fair and not excessively fast for my group. If I can get back to my car by 2 PM, I figure that should be ample time to drive to SF with a stop for dinner, return car rental, get through security and get on the jet on time. I need to get back to San Francisco for a flight out of the airport at 9:35 PM.
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Re: Tuolomne Meadows Bus Shuttle - Wed. Sept. 4

Postby AlmostThere » Fri Aug 02, 2013 8:04 pm

When in doubt, go to the source:

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/p ... tation.htm

If I were you, I would get there a day before and ride the hiker bus up to the top, and hike back down to the valley where I left the car. If you're capable of 17 miles on the first day, going down to the valley from Vogelsang on the last day would be a piece of cake. (17 miles is a heck of a hike - and the day will be shorter...)

Shuttle will shut down in mid September - usually the 15th.
Hiker bus shuts down at the same time.
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Re: Tuolomne Meadows Bus Shuttle - Wed. Sept. 4

Postby askus3 » Sat Aug 03, 2013 12:36 pm

I ran it by the NPS website by sending an e-mail and their response was:

The Tuolumne Shuttle Bus will run through September 15, so you'll be fine! The buses come by every 30 minutes.

Matt

National Park Service
Yosemite National Park
http://www.nps.gov/yose/
__________________________________________________________________________________
So the park eased my mind about getting back to the Sunrise parking area on Wed. 9/4 at 1 PMish. The other part of your response made no sense to me. I don't know what top or valley you are referring to. My plan is to park early (6 AM) at Sunrise Trailhead on Mon. Sept. 2 and start on the 17 mile hike to Merced Lake via Clouds Rest. How would getting there a day earlier help me? If I drop my car off at Tuolomne Meadows the day before (Sun. 9/1), then I'd have to wait until the buses start running before I could get to Sunrise Trailhead, which kills about 1.5 hours from my planned starting time. If you are referring to me getting out the day before - Tue. 9/3, I have HSC reservations at Vogesang for 9/3, so I think I'll be OK with my schedule, especially now knowing that if I catch a 1 PM bus from Tuolomne Meadow to Sunrise Trailhead on 9/4. Then leaving a little after 1:30 PM should be OK to catch a 9:35 PM jet out of SFO.
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