Yosemite Forum

I know there has been a lot written about this subject in different topics but I was hoping to get all my questions answered here in one place.
I am wanting to do an ovenight backpack, staying one night at LYV, with a small group of adults who have not done a lot of backpacking (hiking: yes, backpacking: not so much). We would spend one night camping in the main valley then drive up to Glacier Point early morning, park and leave the car there overnight (we can do that, right?). Then have a leisurely hike to Little Yosemite Valley and enjoy the day/scenery, spend the night. Get up, leave our camp and packs and get to the top of Half Dome. Back down, break down camp and back to the car. Like to do it in the Fall but want to make sure the cables are still up. What are my chances of getting a backcountry permit and finding a campsite in the valley at this point? Is there a specific time the cables come down?
Any tips/suggestions/advice is greatly appeciated.
Thanks in advance.
ScoutmasterBill

I've taken the bus from the Yosemite Valley (leaves from all the hotels) to Glacier Point and hiked down the Panorama Trail down to YLV, then down the Mist Trail down to Happy Isles. This was a long, but enjoyable dayhike. Mostly down (except the uphill after Illilouette Fall).

LYV is a good place for beginner backpackers. Not too far from the trailhead, plenty of water, and easy to find. You still need a Wilderness Permit. Permits are a lot easier to get after Labor Day, especially if it's not the weekend. So, I say pretty good.

The Half Dome cables usually go up sometime in May (often before Labor Day). They go down about mid-October. There's no exact dates, AFAIK.

Try to get to Half Dome by morning, mid-morning or earlier. There's no lines then going up the cables (which makes it less frightening and safer). Bring gardening gloves for your hands when climbing the steel cables.

If you and your friends can't get reservable permits and are relying on first come/first serve do your best to get to the wilderness office the morning before you want to start hiking. Stay the night in the backpacker campground (5/person) and spend time walking around the valley. Get up in the morning and start hiking. If you don't mind crowds take the Mist Trail, but it will be very rocky and the falls are low to nonexistent. If you want a more gradual uphill on switchbacks take the JMT to Nevada Falls, though it is a mile or two longer it is less punishment on the knees for backpackers. If I backpacked it again, I'd go as early as I could, dump the backpack in a bear box after throwing up a tent to claim a site in LYV, and hit the trail for the dome, then have an afternoon recuperating in camp and soaking my feet in the river. Staying a night, hiking in the morning, and then packing out was a big mistake - we didn't start hiking until 4 pm due to some very slow to pack people, sun set around 5:30 -6 (it disappears behind the mountains earlier than actual sunset), two of our party came down so slow we didn't notice they fell far behind and got on the wrong fork of the trail and an older gent fell on the steps on the mist trail, could have been very bad if we hadn't sent a few folks back in the dark.

I did a night hike last week starting around midnight. When we reached half dome around 6 am, there were 30 people up there, several on the cables, and most if not all were drinking (NOT recommended prior to navigating the cables). You are not supposed to camp up there; apparently stargazing in sleeping bags doesn't count. When we started back down the hill around 7-8 am, the line of hikers coming up from the valley was pretty solid. But that was last Friday and Sat - Sun was a fee free weekend, so by the time you get there in late Sept - early Oct there may in fact be fewer people.

Take good gloves, plenty of water (even if it is cold, I drank two liters going up and we were hiking in 35-40F) and go as slow as you need to. The elevation gain is cruel.

That's great, thanks for the info. Was I correct about being able to park at the trailhead at Glacier Point and leave a car there overnight? Does it require any kind of permit? If we were to leave from there, how long of a hike (time) would it be to get to the top of Half Dome (I like the suggestion to drop the packs at LYV and come back there to spend the night)?

ScoutmasterBill wrote:That's great, thanks for the info. Was I correct about being able to park at the trailhead at Glacier Point and leave a car there overnight? Does it require any kind of permit? If we were to leave from there, how long of a hike (time) would it be to get to the top of Half Dome (I like the suggestion to drop the packs at LYV and come back there to spend the night)?

To my knowledge, you can't park your car overnight at Glacier Point. I might be wrong...it happens!

GP is a trailhead. So of course you can park there overnight.

Yep, overnight parking is permissible at any trailhead. Sleeping in the car is not. There are bear boxes to leave stuff in at Glacier Point as well.

AlmostThere wrote:Yep, overnight parking is permissible at any trailhead. Sleeping in the car is not. There are bear boxes to leave stuff in at Glacier Point as well.

There you go. I guess I never looked for it!


EDIT: I haven't been able to hike/backpack for several years and just forgot about that trailhead.