by Phil » Sat Aug 01, 2015 7:54 am
Hi Tracy,
First of all, I would go ahead and get the info you need right from the best source: The direct phone number for the Tuolumne Meadows permitting station is 209-372-0309.
It doesn't matter where you stay the first night in terms of backpacker's camps, but trail heads are technically supposed to be where you begin to walk and keep walking beyond that point, the road and shuttle get into grey areas that you need more info on than I can comfortably give you. Getting it wrong is something that can possibly get you cited, and I'm not okay with that. The ratio of reserved to walk-up permits is 60/40, and popular trails fill up quickly by reservation, and walk-ups sometimes require standing in line at a permitting station while you wait for the sun to rise and the office to open. Vogelsang is one such popular trail head. White Wolf has 4 possible routes out of it, and exiting in the Valley isn't really technically considered one of them under a single permit without working out the details first.
If you're dead set on Vogelsang-Merced Lake-Yosemite Valley, see what you can find out and try to make happen with a phone call. Although, since you're in White Wolf anyhow, you do have the spectacular options of tweaking your trip by going down to Pate Valley, through the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne (one of John Muir's favorite places), up to Glen Aulin and out to Tuolumne Meadows, or up into the 10 Lakes Basin and either exiting May Lake, Murphy Creek, or again, head down to Glen Aulin and exit Tuolumne. Reasonably, you'll need about 3 or 4 days for either. Decide what you then want to/can do from there with the time you have left.