Sorry to bump an old thread. But I just wanted to let all backpackers know to listen to the advice of the posters here! We booked our permit for backpacking, but I had the words of AT, Phil, and Balzaacom in my head when camping that first night....
What if we DID do a whirlwind car tour of Yosemite? Why didn't I realize it would be thirty degrees at night, for my GF's sake? Why did I pack so much food.......?
Instead of the loop mentioned in the thread we did the following:
Day 1: Gaylor Lakes
Day 2: Cathedral Lakes
Day 3: Cloud's Rest
Day 4: Tenaya Lake BEACH DAY
Day 5: Lyell Canyon
Day 6: Mt. Hoffman
Day 7: Vernal/Nevada Fall
Day 8: Glacier/Washburn Pt., Yosemite Fall
Day 9: Nelder Grove of Sequoias
Loved it. I can't wait to come back and backpack this place. Thank you to everyone here for the advice that truly helped us enjoy our trip.
I created a (possibly corny) video of our experience, uploaded to YouTube. Please forgive my rant about White Wolf--a beautiful campsite, but we were being babies and I totally understand its utility. Mostly, I was going for a fun video.
Enjoy, and feel free to skip around! I would highly recommend any number of these hikes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UGx8yXqmBc
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Hello!
My girlfriend and I are planning a trip to California in July or August, and bracing ourselves for the January 15th date of permits being reservable in Yosemite.
If you had to recommend one backpacking trip to truly capture the essence of Yosemite and the Sierras, what would it be?
Parameters:
- Planning this far in advance gives us spectacular flexibility! We want to go for about 10 days, but 14 days is not out of the question. Figure a few days will be spent travelling.
- The sweet spot is anywhere from 2-4 nights. We have done 2 night backpacking before.
- We want to spend some time of our trip seeing San Francisco, as my girlfriend has never been to California. I'd also like her to see Sequoia if possible, but not definite.
- I WANT TO CLIMB MT.WHITNEY! My major point of conflict is wondering if Mt.Whitney is worth sacrificing time from backpacking Yosemite.
- We have backpacking experience, and regularly hike and camp the White Mountains in New Hampshire.
- My girlfriend has no experience above 6000ft, save our time spent at Grand Canyon last summer.
- No climbing experience, save some beginner rappels while canyoneering.
My current plan is Tuolumne Meadows to the valley, with two nights spent camping and hitting different side trips along the way for a total of three days. And then later hiking Mt.Whitney, or backpacking the lakes trail in Sequoia.
I played with the Sierra high camps, but felt like that wouldn't show us enough variety. I went to Yosemite a few years back, and I remember the falls being incredible--I would love to experience them again, but with my girl friend.
All help is appreciated! Thank you!