Need advice: Tuolumne Meadows to Mammoth via thousand island lakes

Agnew Meadow trailhead is the first one you will come to, so suggest leaving your car at Agnew. YARTS bus goes from Mammoth to Tuolumne to Yose Valley (and the reverse). Its a Great bus, but runs weekends only in September. YARTS bus if you are going to have a car at both ends why do you need a bus ? also the narrow one lane road that leads from Mammoth down to Reds Meadow is Not plowed once the snows start.

Agnew Meadows is the first trail head you reach when traveling down Reds Meadow Road. But there are additional trail heads down the road, with the last one being Red's Meadow. It's easy to park at any of the trail heads, it really depends which route you're taking and how far you want to hike. At Thousand Island Lake the trail splits, one route goes on the PCT and the other goes on the JMT. The PCT comes out at Angnew Meadows, which is around mile 27 from Tuolumne. The JMT comes out at Reds Meadow which is mile 34. During the summer Red's Meadow Road is closed from 7AM to 7PM for car traffic, only shuttle buses are allowed, but after Labor day the road is open to all traffic. I did this hike via the PCT split this summer and took the bus from Agnew to Mammoth Mountain Lodge and then took a taxi to Tuolumne. The taxi was quite a bit more expensive, but the YARTS bus didn't go back to Tuolumne until the next day and I didn't have the time to wait. If you want to take the YARTS bus back to Tuolumne you'll need to figure out how to get from the trailhead back into Mammoth Lakes as the shuttle buses don't run after Labor Day. You can have Mammoth Taxi pick you up at a trail head, but you'll need to give them a exact time.

check the smoke levels if you can!

Last week (Wed-Sat) I hiked from Sonora Pass southbound to Tuolumne Meadows. When we started at Sonora Pass the air was fine. However, the smoke from various fires was quite bad on our last 2 days (42 miles). My eyes & sinuses were burning those 2 days, and I’m still coughing up junk. This may or may not have been due to the recent fire in Yosemite that started while we were farther north. The Rough fire was affecting the Owens Valley, from Lone Pine up to Mammoth/June (it looked worse than any smoggy day I’ve ever seen in San Bernardino). Keep an eye on these reports, they may help you determine if/where to hike: http://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_state&stateid=5 http://www.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/parks/yosecam/yose_datatimelines_pm.cfm

Frank: I tried PMing you, but the your PM hasn’t been set up. How was the hike from Sonoma Pass to Tuolumne? Any water issues? I did the opposite direction back in July, Sonoma Pass to Echo Lakes. Beautiful, but different scenery than I expected, the mountains were much more “greener” than Yosemite south.

Kenneth, I think I am set up now and sent you a PM reply.

Thanks guys. Okie I have a few extra days so I'm adding some mileage: Day 1: Stay in hotel in Mammoth. I guess there's a Westin there eh? Day 2: Leave car at Agnew, get ride to Tuolumne meadows ranger station, get permit. Start actual hike at Saddleback lake. Hike off trail over pass to McCabe lake. Camp 1. Day 3: Hike cross country to Young lakes. Camp 2. Day 4: Take dogwood trail, cross tioga rd, then stay in Lyell canyon. Camp 3. Day 5: Stay near Donahue pass….or beyond… Camp 4. Day 6: Hike to Garnet lake. Camp 5. Day 7: GTFO. Hike to Agnew meadow to pickup car. Remaining questions: 1: In case of snows…is the Agnew TH plowed? 2: I'm starting at Saddleback…technically not in Yosemite, but I heard they still issue permits at tuolumne ranger station. I called them today and the ranger seems to concur but said you can't book them ahead of time. He didn't sound so confident…so I'm throwing it out to you guys just to cross reference. 3: I'm guessing crowds will be at a minimum at this time of year? 4. Any campsite recommendations just south of Donahue? Ps: Yes I'm praying Tioga stays open until I go.

You'll also need a permit to go over Donahue Pass, no matter where you start. That's a new regulation to limit traffic on the JMT to reasonable levels. Lyell Canyon is lovely—lots of places to camp. Go off trail into the trees…

You can make wilderness permit reservations for Yosemite. Go to the following site: http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/wpres.htm The NPS is limiting Donahue pass to 45 people per day. You don't need a separate permit for this, it'll be part of the wilderness permit, but it'll have to be stamped with "Donahue Pass" and the day you'll be going over Donahue. You only need the Donahue Pass approval if you're starting in Yosemite. If you pull the permit for another wilderness such as Hoover you can pass through Yosemite via Donahue Pass without having to get permission for Donahue Pass. For Saddlebag Lake you have to pull the permit from Inyo National forest. See http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/trailheads.htm. This link describes why you can't pull the permit for Saddlebag(You stated Saddleback, is this correct?) For the south side of Donahue, there's plenty of great campsites beginning about two miles over the pass. Have far past the pass do you want to go before you camp? I can provide general recommendations depending how far you want to go.

Hmmm, back in June I got my permit for Saddlebag at the Tuolumne Meadows station; does that change after Labor Day or something?

Interesting on the permit, I was going off what the NPS website stated, but you were able to pull the permit at the Tuolumne Meadows site. Did you start the hike at Saddlebag? If yes, then I'd recommend Christopher contact Tuolumne Meadows and verify. Christopher's experience is similar to mine, sometimes when I've talked to them they seem unsure about the process.

I think the permit is among the least of the OP's worries when planning logistics for this trip.

Spoke to 7 different rangers at both Inyo and Yosemite. Got 7 different stories. The ranger from the TM station seemed to be the most knowledgeable. According to him I can pickup the Saddlebag permit at TM and end at Agnew no problem. The Donahue quota makes an exception when you start outside of Yosemite. Since Saddlebag has no quotas…this seems like a great loop hole for the JMT if you're willing to skip the happy isles to TM section. Back to my earlier question…I'm growing concerned about my little car getting snowed in at Agnew…. Do they keep that plowed?

Per this site, http://www.nps.gov/depo/planyourvisit/hours.htm, the road does not get plowed after October 15. But I'd give the NPS a call to double check, who knows if the website is kept up to date.

Thanks so much for the help everyone. Will give the NPS a call about that.