~5 days in Yosemite late June, where?

If you haven’t been before, I recommend starting in the Valley because despite all the people (which are easy to get away from), it really is an amazing place. Once you park, it’s a really convenient jump off point too.

It sounds like you’re solo and your plans are flexible. Well you’re in luck because this makes things way easier. Just go to the Wilderness Center, between the PO and Visitor Center, and request a “first-come, first-served,” next day permit. You see, the full trailheads report only accounts for reserved permits. Every trailhead also has a number of unreserved permits set aside for first-come, first-served. So, for example, while Happy Isles to LYV is booked solid all summer, at 11 a.m. the day before entry, there are 12 “first-come, first-served” permits available, every day.

“Great, now I have a permit for the next day, but where do I stay tonight, Alex?” Don’t worry, things are easy in the Great Valley. Once you have that unreserved next day permit in hand, there’s a backpacker’s campground that you’re allowed to stay in 1 day before and 1 day after your trip (you need a Wilderness permit to stay there).

For a classic 5 day trip out of the Valley, I’d try for a Happy Isles to LYV, or pass thru, and explore the Merced, north into the Cathedral Range, then head back to the Valley hitting up Clouds Rest along the way.

Go to Tuolumne meadows. If you’re driving in from the west stop at the 120 park entrance and try to score a same day walk up permit for one person there (get there as early as possible.) You’ll arrive at this permit station a couple of hours earlier than the one at Tuolumne if you’re coming in from the west. Then get a permit for Reds Peak and loop over to 1000 island lake (but stay elsewhere in that area) and then hike back to Tuolumne. Maybe take a day to explore. Or go to Vogelasang, down to Lake Merced (but don’t camp there) and loop out at Sunrise. Or go over Vogelsang pass and take the high route to Triple Divide and loop back out at Vogelsang, or better Sunrise. this last is less peopled (stay off the JMT and take the alternate route to Sunrise which few people take.)

If you can’t get a same day permit at the entrance you can always stay at the backpackers camp at Tuolumne. But get to the ranger station early and if you’re solo and VERY NICE and act like you know what you’re doing, you may well score a same day permit. I always did, but I got to know many of the issuers, which helps.

I’m suggesting itineraries for someone who doesn’t have a lot of experience and wants to stay on trail. I think these are highly scenic routes. If you don’t stay at the high sierra camps you can avoid the worst crowds (it’ surprisingly easy to get away from people even on these very popular routes.) Going over Vogelsang Pass and out to triple divide gets you well away from people once past Vogelsang until you loop back.

Go to the Yosemite website and look at when they give out walk in permits. There are actually two ways to get a permit. The ones they held back for walk ins, the ones that other people paid for and abandoned.

The walk in permits are handed out starting the day before the starting date on your permit.

The permits that other people reserved, but did not pick up in time, are considered abandoned – those will be the ones you are picking up the morning of, for starting on the same day.

There are different times for these lines. They got sick of having a mile of people camping on their doorstep, and so this is the way it works now. Go in the morning and see about an abandoned permit for the same day. If that doesn’t work, hang out til 1 (or 2, not remembering exactly) and try for a walk in for the following day. If you don’t get that, come back the following morning and try again for an abandoned permit.

No actually they leave something like 20% of trailheads open for walk ins on the same day. Unless this policy has changed in the last two years.

Robert, I would try to be at the station at the entrance to Yosemite on 120 around t0;00 but often was there later. But if you can be there when they open, and you’re solo, I think you have a good shot at a same day permit. But I would always enter on a weekday other than Friday, so this is advisable for sure. The Parker/Reds Peak trail head tends to be less popular, so if that’s what’s available it’s still a good hike. But acclimation may be an issue–you start high at Tuolumne and Red’s Peak is the highest pass in the park, I believe. The Donohue Pass trail is great because it goes along with no climbing for the first nine miles. You can just walk this and spend a day and night acclimating before climbing up to Donohue. Then you could circle out at Reds Peak going in that direction. But the climb up to that pass is sort of boring until the last two miles or so.

There are plenty of good hikes out of Tuolumne. Once you’re in, you can change your itinerary, so there’s room to improvise.

For 5 days/ 4 nights the BV450 should work. First day’s food doesn’t need to be in there and you can skimp on last day since I’m sure you’ll be stopping to grab something wonderfully greasy. Just remember that your other smelly things, like sunscreen, toothpaste, chapstick, etc., need to fit too.

You just have to hike past the red arrow point before you’re allowed to camp.

Porcupine Creek mainly serves as an access point to the Valley’s north rim, which is a great trip, but maybe a bit short for 5 days. I guess if you traverse the entire rim, hit all the highlights (Indian Rock, North Dome, Eagle Peak, El Cap), and return to Tioga Rd via Tamarack Creek it would work. You might want to still layover half a day somewhere nice to fill some time. Thumb it back to your car at Porcupine to complete the “loop.” Or, backtrack once you get to El Cap/Ribbon Creek.

Not a horrible trailhead.  From there you can hike down to North Dome, then head over to Mt. Watkins, hike up towards Tenaya Lake, Sunrise, Clouds Rest…and then end up in the Valley.  That’s a nice hike.

Or head over to May Lake after Mt. Watkins….etc.

Yeah, I think I’m getting the times for permit pick up conflated with SEKI… the rules keep changing in the parks due to demand too so it doesn’t help.

“I am trying to understand if I can take the Porcupine creek trail south and then hike up through Little Yosemite Valley, possibly to Vogelsang and then back swinging by Clouds Rest. Maybe that is too ambitious or breaks the rules listed above. (?)”

If by this you mean hike down from Porcupine Creek via the Yosemite Falls trail or the Snow Creek trail, to the Valley itself, then up Happy Isles to LYV, no, you cannot do this. If by this you mean hiking north along the rim to connect to the trail to Clouds Rest, hike over the ridge to LYV, then yes. The Valley proper is outside wilderness boundaries. You stay inside wilderness boundaries or the permit is void. Also hiking up the road to another trailhead to continue – you can cross the road to continue on the trail on the other side, but not walk the road or shuttle or drive anywhere and continue.

You can park and take the YARTS or the hiker bus back to the starting trailhead. YARTS schedule is on their website, hiker bus schedule is at yosemitepark.com

https://www.travelyosemite.com/things-to-do/guided-bus-tours/

You also cannot camp within a mile of the road, FYI.

Robert, there’s also this, which is a good site for Yosemite:

https://yosemitenews.info/forum/list.php?17

A great trip is to start at Tuolumne Meadows, then hike the loop down through Vogelsang to the valley floor and take the bus back to your car [busses daily from TM to the valley]. Its a good 3-5 day trip without the long climbs from the valley floor.

Its been awhile since I’ve done it, can’t remember the exact TH. My buddy and I would fish those backcountry lakes and since you start high, its mostly downhill. Then grab a pizza and a couple beers at Curry Village[ or whatever they call it now] and take the 1 1/2 hr bus ride back to the car.

You could just do day hikes from the VF; Yosemite falls one day [from memory +3,500′?], little Yosemite with Vernal and Nevada falls [+2,500′ ?], then Glacier point [+3500?] another day. Those will give you your quota of climbing