Backpacking 3 Days Tuolumne

[Datyam]

Hey everyone,

I'm really interested to go on a 3 day backpacking trip in Yosemite. It'll probably be myself +2-3 others. All of us are pretty fit and love to fish. We really want to go on ~6-8 mile stretch each day and try to fish as much as possible.

Talking to a park ranger, I was told to start on the east side of Tuolumne. I've looked a bit online, but don't really know how else to plan my trip. I want to make sure that we have adequate water and are able to have a great experience. I know I'm new to this community, but I'd love to get started and be a part of the fun.

I've looked online for trailhead information, but it really isn't that helpful (at least to me). We want to make a loop that's around 20-25 miles or so and be able to probably stop by a lake or by a river for the night.

Are there any suggestions how I can start planning the trip. Goal is to go end of August. I know it isn't much time, but that's the timeframe that I'm stuck in. I want to move as fast as possible so we can make our reservation but also be able to have backups incase we aren't able to go on the first planned route.

I'd really appreciate it if I could get some helpful websites or anyone that might be able to let me know good routes/trails to take on this adventure. Thanks in advance. I really appreciate the help.

[AlmostThere]

The Yosemite website will have a list of full trailheads and information on how to get a permit. You will be extremely lucky (as in, enter the lottery too if you get a reservation) to get a permit reserved for popular trailheads off Tioga Road.

Sierra North (a guidebook) has a lot of good suggestions for hikes in this area. Don't limit yourself to Yosemite. There are plenty of great loops outside it. You would have a higher probability of getting a permit in Ansel Adams Wilderness and there are great destinations - going in via Agnew, visiting Thousand Island, Garnet, Nydiver, Ediza Lakes, and coming out Reds Meadow would also give you options for getting shuttles back into Mammoth to your car at the end. From the west side, more remote and less popular, a permit can be gotten at Clover Meadow (end of Beasore Road out of Bass Lake) for Cora Lakes - loads of exploring in granite out that way.

When I want to fish - I don't plan to go to Yosemite. They do not plant the lakes any more and most lakes are quite small, thus the fish are also small, and usually brook trout which tend to overpopulate and then become very skinny. You should plan to leave salmon eggs and live bait at home (live bait is prohibited in the park anyway) and use flies and spinners, which work well. Note that in many waterways in the parks, you are limited to catch and release - barbless single hooks. No fish feeds in the Dana Fork of the Tuolumne, the Merced River, or any other Wild and Scenic River.

If you walk up to a lake and you can see the rocks in the bottom all across the lake - there won't be fish. Shallow lakes that freeze to the bottom in winter stay fishless. The Forest Service and the Park Service are also gillnetting and poisoning the fish out of a lot of the high lakes to make them available to the yellow legged from - the fish up high are all planted, the frog is/was indigenous and so they are hoping to bring back the frogs in much of their old habitat. A short list of fish kill lakes for Yosemite: Upper Mattie Lake and nearby unnamed ponds; Virginia Lake, Bartlett Creek lakelets, Roosevelt Lake, Middle and Tiny Mc Cabe Lakes, Hutchings Lake.

If your priority is truly fishing, I would send you into Dinkey Lakes via Courtright - Courtright is planted and full of good sized trout. Spending a few days backpacking into Dinkey would get you rainbows, golden-rainbow hybrids, brook trout of decent size, and then camp a day at Courtright when you get back to the trailhead and fish from the shore near the dam for 3 lb rainbows and kokanee. Or, for a more remote experience - go out of the Maxson trailhead on the east side of Courtright and go into Red Mountain Basin, Bench Valley, Blackcap Basin, and fish the high lakes - great fishing in many of these high, deep lakes full of trout. You will especially enjoy this if you are any good at cross country navigation - alpine navigation off trail is fairly straightforward. The trails are not so well maintained but the solitude and the fishing are excellent. And the permits are gotten from Sierra National Forest, and much easier to obtain.

Do some research on these locations at High Sierra Topix, and read in the fishing forum there.

[balzaccom]

We've got a website that lays out a few options for you here. Fishing is not great in Yosemite, and AT is right about planted trout and barren lakes. It is possible to hike all day to get to a lake with no fish. A three day loop? Your best bet might be something out of the east side--Hoover Wilderness, Ansel Adams Wilderness or John Muir Wilderness lead into Yosemite, but also include some good water to fish, great scenery, and often fewer people than Yosemite itself.

One more note about this year: it's dry. Many of the smaller streams are not going be good fish habitat, and that's an issue. The larger rivers are only two: The Merced which gets a TON of fishing pressure, and the Tuolumne which is at the bottom of a canyon that will be toasty warm at best in August.

If you don't like the Dinkey Lakes suggestion, take a look at a trip out of Granite Creek, where you could hike to a series of lakes just to the south of the Yosemite, and find some interesting fishing for 8-13 inch trout...

[centurycyclist]

possible that I don't know much about fishing, but we just hiked out from Tuolumne past Glen Aulin (this past weekend) and saw LOTS of good sized fish in the Tuolumne River and regretted not having rods to fish. (MY husband fishes, I am a tag-a-long) We saw great fishing opportunities at the first spot that the trail meets the river, and particularly where it begins to cascade. Other fishermen were SLAYING fish as we watched. Maybe that changes later in the season, but thought i'd put our 50 cents in.

[AlmostThere]

Since the bag limit is five, those fishermen better have been releasing most of them.....

[Moo]

Great trout fishing throughout the Sierras and Yosemite without a doubt is high on that list. I was just there and experienced the most wide open bite on big trout ever. Be flexible, pick multiple trailheads and show up early at the Wilderness office; 40% of permits are reserved for the day of. Tons of info online, tons... Tuolumne is not to be missed.

[AlmostThere]

You'll have to qualify "great" - some people are looking for big fish. The largest rainbows in the area will be in Saddlebag Lake or in the river.

You can catch 800 brook trout in any tiny lake... they bite on anything. Big water, big trout. Little water....

[Datyam]

Thank you guys a lot! Sorry for not replying earlier. But I truly do appreciate the help! We'll try and make a decision sometime soon based off the forums and suggestions from others.

Whatever happens, we'll do our best to post pictures of us having an awesome time in the outdoors.

Are there any other suggestions that you all would like to share? We'd definitely love to hear anything that hasn't been said yet.

Thanks again!

[Dave_Ayers]

One suggestion is Ten Lakes. You could hike in the 1st day and stay at Grant Lakes or one of the Ten Lakes. It's about a ~6 mi hike with about ~2000 feet of elevation gain. Then you could spend the 2nd day hiking to and fishing the several lakes (there are about 9 sizable ones). There are a couple of knobs you can climb up that have great views down into the Tuolumne Canyon. Then you can do a bit more exploring it time permits and hike out the 3rd day. Ten Lakes makes a nice introductory 3 day trip and the drive is shorter if you are coming from the west. The full trailheads report currently shows only 9 days advance reservations filled in August.

The creeks and springs are drying up in this very dry year, so you'll mostly need to drink lake water almost anywhere you go in later August. So bring some kind of water treatment (filter, steripen, etc.).