Eskimoke wrote:
Day 1: park in valley and catch bus up to Glacier Point in the afternoon. Down to Illilouette creek, camp the first night.
Day 2: Head towards or through LYV but which route? Which camp area if we want to do Clouds Rest the following day?
Day 3: drop some gear and do Clouds Rest (out and back). Which is the best (easiest/quickest) route?
Day 4: would like to end up near Sunrise or Cathedral Lakes and out to Tioga Rd. but there are no shuttles or YARTS back to valley from what I can tell. Options?
The options to get to LYV from first night's camp are the Panorama Trail (about 6 miles or so to LYV from the required 2 miles upstream along the creek) or a long loop over Red Peak Pass (around 40 miles or so by way of a pass and some lovely lakes, ending by hiking along the Merced River into LYV). Unless you like off trail travel over steep terrain.
On day 2, you will either camp in LYV or go up the trail 2 miles. LYV is a no-camp zone outside the designated area for camping. There are campsites at the trail junction to Clouds. It's not really a full day of hiking from there to the top of Clouds. Plenty of time left in the day for a long nap.
YARTS or the hiker bus will go back to the valley. You'll want to catch the free shuttle to Tuolumne Meadows. This would require timing, or willingness to spend the night in the backpacker camp at Tuolumne Meadows, which you can do with your permit and $5/ per person. Personally, I would drive the car up to the trailhead parking, take the free shuttle to the bus stop at the Tuolumne Meadows store - or if scheduling demands it spend a night in the backpacker camp and catch the bus back to the valley floor to start - so as to have my vehicle waiting for me, so I can dawdle, watch the sunset and headlamp hike out if I want to.
I doubt that YARTS or the hiker bus will wait til the usual seasonal start - they'd lose an awful lot of revenue. The hiker bus tickets can be reserved at yosemitepark.com through the concessionaire and picked up at Yosemite Lodge. YARTS is cash in hand, no reservations, and there's one stop at each location.