Mid-May: Glacier Point-LYV-Then what?

[jchapell]

We will be arriving on May 12, and after a relaxation day in the Valley (we will be coming from hiking the prior weekend in Oregon), have our wilderness permits for Glacier Point-Little Yosemite Valley. We are planning:

May 13: Relaxation Day in the Valley
May 14: Wilderness Permit Begins : Glacier Point-LYV
May 15: LYV - ?
May 16: ? - Descend Mist Trail (End wilderness permit)
May 17: Marisposa Grove

- This is our first time in Yosemite
- We are very able and fit hikers, My wife is 3 mos pregnant, so we will only be doing 2 nights to keep the carry weight down.

What is great bang for the buck that is accessible in mid May after a night at Little Yosemite Valley campground? Subdome? Cloudsrest? Diving Board? The snow doesn't discourage us at all as long as it's safe; we will be carrying gaiters and microspikes (and will have our snowshoes and crampons in the car if we decided to lug them along). It doesn't need to be trail... I am grateful for any thoughts, and am so excited for this visit.

[AlmostThere]

I don't know that I would want to take a pregnant woman to the Diving Board. The hiking route involves scrambling up through brush and if you don't know the route you can get lost in cairn hell, and wandering in the open granite will be very hot. The climber's route involves class 4 move at one point and a lot of exposure on the slabs. I think Clouds Rest is a better bet, or going up the canyon toward Merced Lake and enjoying the azaleas along the river's edge.

[jchapell]

Thanks AlmostThere- such great info. I'd read that there is some scrambling on the way to the diving board, but hearing this I think we'll avoid it. I'm continuing to process some of the options, including maybe changing the permit to beginning at Sunrise, but any other advice is still welcome!

[balzaccom]

At any rate, you will want to be especially careful not to let your wife get dehydrated. Remeber that at altitude you may not notice that you are losing moisture===the sweat just plain disappears===but you will need to drink plenty of water.

Sunrise to CLouds Rest is a better hike in many ways. YOu miss the waterfalls, but you also miss 95% of the people, too!

[jchapell]

Thanks balzaccom - we are definitely going to be working on hydration big time.
We would prefer to begin at Sunrise at this point, but it looks like transportation is going to be difficult (and expensive) if not impossible since the shuttle isn't running yet. If anyone is interested in a sharing a ride and dropping a car around the 14-16th next week, please let me know!

Any beta on mosquitoes at this point this year?

[AlmostThere]

The pass will still have snow on it - another few inches just fell and closed the road.

If you can't navigate with the trail obscured, that would probably be a bad thing to try.