Hetch Hetchy to Tuolumne Meadows in June??

[neophitz]

A group of four of us are planning a hike in the first week of June from Toulumne Meadows into the valley then take a car from the valley to Hetch Hetchy then hike the Grand Canyon of the Toulumne River Trail back to Toulomne Meadows. We are pretty seasoned hikers with ten days to hike and realize that the Tioga Road plays a big part in the plan. ARE WE CRAZY? Does anyone know if there are any nasty crossings? Any input would help! THANKS!! :D

[AlmostThere]

I assume you intend to have a car waiting in TM or hitch hike? There are no shuttles or busses to Hetch Hetchy.

It might be possible. There are creek crossings, but bridges over major ones. I hope you are aware of what poison oak looks like.

[balzaccom]

And I assume that you know the traditional way to do this hike is from White Wolf? I am not sure why you want to do it from Hetch-hetchy. From White Wolf it is a nice four day hike...and if you really want to explore the HH area, you could do that without the long slog over the top of Rancheria Mountain.

From Tuolumne Meadows you can get a shuttle to White Wolf, but not the HH. And in June there is not guarantee the Tioga Road will be open--although this year certainly looks better than last.

If it were me, I would do the shorter version of the hike, and use the other six days to explore other parts of Yosemite, like Lake Vernon and even Jack Main Canyon from HH.

And that is assuming that there isn't too much snow in June

[neophitz]

[neophitz]

Thanks for the intel everyone. We will definitely investigate the poison oak. We have 2 cars and are open for whatever. Got 10 days. We thought the hike down into the Tuolumne river canyon going east would be cool.

[AlmostThere]

It will be hot. Good thing there is water to drink.

Probably also buggy...

Bears are bad at rancheria and in pate.

You will go down, all right, and then climb, climb, climb.....

[bill-e-g]

I commend you for thinking about attempting this.
I assume you have 10 days for both treks. Um.. that's probably not enough time.
For just the Hetch Hetchy to Tuolumne Meadows trek you will for sure
burn 5 days. Well, unless you have four people who really are seasoned
(whatever that means). Here's a quick rundown of that trek.
Approx 45 miles. Up 5K ft, down 1.5K ft, up 1K, down 3K, up 4K.
Major crossing at Piute. NOT BRIDGED. Tuolumne can flood east of Pate.
Register is NOT BRIDGED. Glen Aulin Proper can be flooded.
Twin Bridges can be flooded. Dingley and Delaney can be problematic.
Most people do the White Wolf way b/c they look at Rancheria Mtn. and cry.
You could do it in less days but I'm not sure why you would want to
unless you have already been thru the area.
What would I recommend? Take your time and enjoy your other trek and
do a lot of exploring. If you want to see GCT then that early maybe
you want to just do an out and back from TM.
If you search for grand canyon of tuolumne on yosemitenews.info
you should find boatloads of info.
Have fun (and don't worry about the bears)

[neophitz]

Thanks Bill,

Thanks for all the good intel. We are not afraid to get soaked assuming we can keep our sleeping bags dry. We are primarily worried about joining the fallen backpackers that were unfortunate in 2011. We don't want to do something stupid. Perhaps we were foolish but thought we were being conservative by trying to avrage 10 miles a day. Do you or anyone feel that these crossing might be a hazard to stay away from. Some bumped knees and wet bags we can handle, watching a dear friend of mine roll over a waterfall is not something we want to experience. That said, any other thoughts?