South Rim Hike

[Jeff]

hello,

i am planning to hike the south rim trail making it a loop trip from Curry Village where I plan to leave my car. My question is it doesn't appear that a trail exists from the Bridaveil Falls parking lot to the trail head near tunnel view. On Google Earth it looks like the old road may continue in the forest to the BVF parking lot. Does anyone know if this old road exists or whether you can just hike along the shoulder of Hwy 41, or is that discouraged/prohibited by NPS? Thanks in advance for any advice/information.

[Dave_Ayers]

Yes, there is trail most of the way from Bridalveil Fall to the Pohono Trail above Discovery View east of the Wawona Tunnel. There is only perhaps 1/3rd mile that you'd have to walk along the road west of the Bridalveil Falls parking loop. In Google Earth, go to Layers, More, Parks/Rec Areas, US Nat Parks, and click the box next to Trails. That will make all the maintained Yosemite trails visible in red with segment mileages shown too (the mileages are a bit low). Or take a look at the El Capitan 1:24000 USGS topo map which also shows the trail. The USGS maps can be downloaded for free at http://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/usgs/map ... ea=%24ROOT)/.do

[Jeff]

Thanks!