Vogelsang Roundtrip Ideas (or creative alternatives) Sought!

[sharonjm]

Hi everyone!

Planning my first trip to Yosemite and super excited, but hard work with too many choices and too little time!

My plan was:
- Day 1: Park car and hike from Tuolumne Meadows to Vogelsang Camp via Lyell Canyon. Stay in VC
- Day 2: hike back to T Meadows, pick up car and drive to Curry
- Day 3: hike Pohono trail. Back to Curry
- Day 4: hike Half Dome. Leave after

Question: Do I have to do the same trail to Vogelsang and back? Seems a bit dull, no? Or is there another round trip that would get me back to the car so we can head over to the other part of Yosemite?

Would really appreciate the help! Have already planned for hours (while supposedly working) and still can't decide what to do and it's 2 weeks away!

Thanks in advance.

[bill-e-g]

You can come out any way you like.

Obvious loop is out Rafferty Creek.

[TigerFan]

I assume you're hiking back to TM to avoid any car shuttling issues?

Otherwise, one option would be a point-to-point hike:
Day 1: TM to Vogelsang
Day 2: Vogelsang to Merced
Day 3: Merced to LYV
Day 4: Half Dome then hike to Valley (Happy Isles)

If you're going when the shuttles are still running, I believe the shuttle from the Valley back up to TM leaves at 5 PM, so you could get back up to TM on day 4.