Trail conditions from Tenaya Lake to Sunrise Lakes

[dbarney]

We're backpacking to Sunrise Lakes next week. Does anyone know what the trail conditions are?

[cjoz]

We're backpacking to Sunrise Lakes next week. Does anyone know what the trail conditions are?

I did a trip last Weds-Sunday (6/23-27). First day was Tenaya Lakes to the 1st Sunrise Lake after the trail junction. Mostly clear but it became 100% snow covered at one point heading up the switchbacks. Completely lost the trail in the trees at 9000ft, which happened to be about the last quarter mile before hitting the trail junction. Got out of the trees and hiked up a ridge that was east of the actual trail. Ran across the trail leading down to Sunrise Lakes and were lost no more.

Met two hikers that were coming out from that area and they said the 2nd/3rd lakes in were completely snow covered and no trail (6/23). May have improved since then.

[dbarney]

Thanks for additional info. I just got off the phone with the wilderness office and they provided me with their latest report as of 6/24. They confirmed that the trail is 80-100% snow covered, hikers need to be able to self navigate, and the water crossing at Tenaya lake is about waist deep.

[cjoz]

Yeah, crossing was something like 2.5-3' deep on Wednesday (6/23) but may be lower at this point. When we made it back to the trailhead on Sunday (6/27) we noticed that the mosquitoes were significantly worse than when we started. Probably don't want to spend much time at the trail head gearing up unless you've doused yourself w/ deet.

[dbarney]

Thanks for mosquito update, Cjoz. Did you cross at the lake's inlet or outlet? The Wilderness office said the inlet is probably not as deep as the outlet.

[cjoz]

Crossed at the outlet. I asked the guy at TM Wilderness Permit office about doing the inlet b/c I had heard the same but he said better off just sucking it up b/c it'd be a long boggy hike along the back side of Tenaya. Wasn't too bad. I had my poly-pro underwear on and some water shoes. Not that big a deal.

[rickrocker]

Heading up to Sunrise lakes myself on July 10th! Thanks for all of the updates and hope to hear some more news from a few of you about the conditions...particularly the river crossing at the beginning of the hike as I am bringing up a couple of 14 year old boys I want to make sure they are not swept away - though I'm gathering that the crossing is pretty deep but not swift. This will be my 4th trip up Sunrise, first with my son.

[dbarney]

Given the conditions of the trail, can anyone tell me if GPS systems are reliable versus map/compass?

[LVRAY]

Just got back from doing a loop that included Tenaya Lake to Sunrise, Clouds Rest, Half Dome and back up to the meadows via the JMT and Cathedral Lakes. Crossed the Tenaya Lake outlet on 6/29. Crossing was just about crotch deep (I'm 5'10"), perhaps 50 to 60 feet wide, very still and not really all that cold. Easily doable. Did it in my underwear & crocks to avoid getting pants wet - lol. Water never reached my underwear.

Rest of the stream crossings can be jumped over, rock hopped or avoided with logs. Not an issue at all.

Very little snow left on trail. Some on switchbacks in trees before the junction of the Sunrise Lakes trail, but route is very obvious. Will probably be gone in a few days if not already. Very little snow left just before Clouds Rest, nothing to worry about. Probably gone by now. There is obviously mud. Bugs were not present at all on entire trip. However, when we got back to our car at Tenaya-SRL trailhead a few days later, they were numerous.

[dbarney]

Thank you! Thank you! So glad to hear this update so we can stop worrying about the snow.

[rickrocker]

Thanks for the update...sounds like conditions are purty good!

[orienteering]

Given the conditions of the trail, can anyone tell me if GPS systems are reliable versus map/compass?

We hiked on 6/12-14 from Tenaya Lake via Clouds Rest to HI. Back then the trail was non-existent and we used a Garmin GPS with the 24k topo map which has the trails on it. That was very reliable and we hit each and every trail intersections (the signs were sticking out of the snow) spot on. You can see our GPS track on my son's website http://daniels-eagle-scout-project.webs.com/preparationhikes.htm