need some trip suggestions for the yosemite area.

[Justin Baker]

I have next tuesday – thursday off and want to go backpacking. I need to stop and visit a friend in groveland, so it will be yosemite. I've never been over tioga pass so I'm thinking about starting out of tuolumne.

But…I've only been backpacking in yosemite once.

I need some advice here, I have no idea where to start.

I'm looking for:
good stream and lake fishing
off trail possibilities (some scrambling would be fun) would actually prefer mostly off trail if possible.

I will have my new tenkara then so I will be spending time learning it.

Any suggestions out of tuolumne?

I'm thinking that I will skip the crowds going during the week.

[Marko Botsaris]

The river both north and south of the road is great fishing. This time of year you probably should just drive to the wilderness office there and see what permits you can get, and be flexible. Either direction on the PCT, if you can get it, for a few days should be great. If the fishing is the main thing I'd say go up Lyell valley and then back. Or go north and hang a left at Glen Aulin and go down the canyon a ways as far as you like.

I think there may some good off-trail possibilities if you go up the trail towards Vogelsang and then back towards Cathedral lake/peak, but I can't report on the fishing. Pretty sure the lakes have plenty though.

Just be flexible, and see what you can get that morning at the wilderness office.

[Justin Baker]

Thanks Mark! Now to find all the places you mentioned on my map…

Do you think permits would be an issue even in the middle of the week?

[Adam White]

Justin,

So, three days?
How many miles per day?
Scrambling up peaks, or just off-trail travel?

I'll be dayhiking out of Tuolumne on Friday, and can at least give you an update on conditions.

[Justin Baker]

3 days and 2 nights.
Going to plan on 10 miles a day, not too ambitious with time to explore and fish around.
Might hit a few peaks, mostly want to brush up my map+compass skills.
Just went over my map and cathedral lake to volesange looks like a nice trek with lots to explore around that area, I could even walk that one ridge all the way over.

edit: looked at the map again, and it looks like I could pass by vogesange and go down to lyell canyon and take that back to tolumne, making a loop.

[Dan Magdoff]

You should check out the Ten Lakes Basin. You could either do an out and back or make a loop out of it. There are lots of lakes and streams they trail goes by with good fishing, and there are a lot of lakes you could do some off trail hiking too. You could probably make most of the loop off trail if you wanted too.

[Bill Law]

Or, for twice the fun, 20 Lakes Basin. I wonder if that's not what Dan, meant, anyway.

Some easy cross country travel goes over to McCabe and Roosevelt lakes. Good fishing, I hear. I'm looking to head there myself, soon, to try out some new fishing gear.

No trail quotas out of Saddlebag Lake, I believe.

[Ken Helwig]

Agree with Bill on Saddlebag Lake. Amazing country! Though not really Yosemite. Cathedral Lakes is quite pretty. Good swimming at one of the lakes and I'm sure fishing is good too. Youncan probably make it a loop too

[Marko Botsaris]

Justin, you can check here to see the full trailheads for Yosemeite:

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/upload/fulltrailheads.pdf

This doe not mean there will not be other openings at the last moment, but it will give you an idea. After a certain time each day if reservations are not picked up they will become available. 10 lakes is a good recommendation for a shortish trip, but is also one of the most popular. Also, if you want a scramble Mt. Dana near the pass is a nice walk up peak that can be done as a day hike.

Good luck.

[Dan Magdoff]

No….I meant Ten Lakes Basin. It is off Tioga Pass Rd, North of Yosemite Creek Canyon. The Trail follows Yosemite Creek North off of Tioga Rd, goes just West of Grant Lake, over Ten Lakes Pass and down into Ten Lakes. From there the trail goes to South Fork Cathederal Creek. You could do an easy XC route from Grant Lake to Ten Lakes and I heard Mattie Lake to the North East is nice with some good fishing. You could loop the trail and finish at Tenaya Lake or Tuolumne.

[Marko Botsaris]

LOL

That's at least the 3rd time one here that I know about that there was a discussion/confusion between the two.

[Lori P]

Mattie is on the list of lakes from which fish are being removed, if that would alter anything. So are McCabe lakes.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/naturescience/upload/4-05-11-Experimental-Fish-Remova.pdf

The lower of the Ten Lakes have decent fishing for brook trout.

[Justin Baker]

Thank you for all of the additional suggestions, I have some research to do.

[Michael Driscoll]

While no x-country and 4000 feet in 8 miles Pate Valley is the best any time of year… Ten lakes very good and could do some x-country as suggested…

with Pate think catch and release as to big for one to eat, 3 poles tenkara, fly,spinning and 1 to 10lb test… just watched a 6lb 22inch pulled a month ago north side about a mile down good camping watch for rattlers… Ten lakes easy tenkara in 4 of the lakes so far, very beautiful area and heavily used but easy to find good camping out of the way… the pic is with 7 of us going to 7 of the lakes and everyone caught at least 1, a great day hike and meal…

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