Tuolumne is super busy

Tuolumne Meadows and parts of Yosemite are riddled with roads.  What do you expect?  Decades ago in their wisdom the backcountry honchos decided rolling car traffic should be the top priority and you see what that policy has done.

They have fancy words for it like “multi-use access” or “motor nature loops” or other such garblespeak but it all boils down to lazy Americans out for a no-calorie nature fix by driving to the closest trailheads they can find.  Many don’t even get out of their cars.  I call them Drive By Droolers.

Tourist-Industrial Complex

Tourist-Industrial Complex

Thank you.

Well my post was to warn about the difficulty of obtaining a campsite these weeks. I enjoy the Meadows, doing day-hikes with friends not inclined to backpack. There were many people out of their cars and hiking. If anything, the crunch in camping spots is caused by the park making an effort to keep to sustainable levels. While I hate the RV’s and their generators, I think that it is important to offer many different ways to access and enjoy the wilderness so as to maximize public support for public lands. I view National Parks and activity groups like the Sierra Club and Boy Scouts as conduits to recruit and educate for the good fight. We have very determined enemies.

Joshua Tree National Park is empty right now :-)

I am a bit conflicted here. Without the support of the ‘less mobile’ – and there are LOTS of them, the pollies might think of other uses for the National Parks. Bluntly, we need their votes.

Cheers

I feel like Tuolumne is overrated as a backpacking destination. It’s a nice place for sure, but there are more spectacular places in the Sierra that get far less use.

Oh I don’t think that Tuolumne is overrated. One begins by accepting it for what it is. It doesn’t pretend to be pristine wilderness. Yes of course there are plenty of other spectacular areas in the Sierra that see less foot traffic. That–and yes even the crowds–doesn’t diminish the beauty of Tuolumne, especially if you include all of the places that you can day hike to–and all of the perspectives of the surrounding country that these afford. If you get away from the road and climb up in elevation, the views are pretty impressive. Even if you wander off for a half mile, the country is pretty impressive.

and it’s not a half bad jumping off place to more secluded areas of wilderness.

If you require solitude in your definition of beauty, then Tuolumne isn’t for you. If you can look past the people–and you can easily leave most behind inside of an hour or less if you know where to go (esp. off trail) then it remains pretty stunning.

p.s. yeah the campground is awful. But I once spent a night there chatting with three climbers who had lived in that campground for two months, climbing every day. One was a German who had to leave the next day. He was practically in despair. He climbed in Europe but all he wanted to do was come back. So there’s that.

I think Toulumne is overrated because the scenery (at least what I have seen) is not all that impressive compared to many other places in the Sierras. However, keep in mind that I have only done a couple of trips in that area. I find that there is a lot of uninspiring lodgepole pine and granite boulder dominated forest sections. I’m not saying that Toulumne doesn’t have great scenery, it does, but I feel it’s average when looking at the entire high sierra. Without the Yosemite National Park brand name drawing people in, I don’t think we would see the solid booked backcountry permit reservations like we do.

Without the Yosemite National Park brand name drawing people in, I don’t think we would see the solid booked backcountry permit reservations like we do.
I don’t think its the brand name so much as the roads.  Easier rolling access increases human influx.  Make it much more difficult to reach and less people will come—only those who have to “earn” it.  And this is not elitism coming from someone who can walk, this is an opinion from a backpacker who is seeing the encroachment of “syphilization” all thru America the Beautiful.
Rolling couch potatoes have rolling access to millions of miles of “arsephalt” roads and dirt roads and bicycle trails and all the rest as it is.  Can we not put places like Yosemite aside and close the roads to keep out casual visitation?

In the GSMNP we have 11 million visitors a year, all rolling, with the worst air pollution of any Park in the country.  All around the Park there is civilization, the Park then becomes a small oasis from the madness.  And yet get this:  There is the clogged Cades Cove motor loop right thru the Park along with several other major roads.  It’s a mind-blower but true and reflects the choices made decades ago to service the rolling American public.  They roll thru the cities and they roll thru the suburbs and they roll along the Interstates and they expect to roll thru National Parks and to roll as close into wilderness areas as possible.

they expect to roll thru National Parks and to roll as close into wilderness areas as possible.

So let them roll through, and stay in their cars. Their appreciation of what they can see will (hopefully) stop the pollies and developers from turning the whole lot into an asphalt parking lot.
(And just looking from their cars will not damage the place any more.)

Cheers

Given the number of people who come through Tuolumne, the Park has done a pretty good job in keeping the environment pretty pristine. Sure there’s a ribbon of heavily worn trails leading out from the main campground. And yes the bears are a problem. Again, it’s not pristine. But the vast majority of people respect the place. This includes the large(ish) climbing community who spend the summer there. And it’s not like the Valley floor either–far from it. Remember, for most of the year Tuolumne is under snow and relatively inaccessible. Look, it’s not a destination spot for me, but for many people it is and as others have said, these people vote. Moreover, they have a right to the kind of ‘wild’ experience they can manage or afford or simply like. Who knows what their children will do. Anyway they’re out of our hair in twenty minutes so who cares?

I admit that since I’ve started so many great hikes out of Tuolumne–or driven through it on my way to other trailheads North and South– I have a soft spot for the place

I perhaps unfairly include Tenaya Lake and environs as being part of Tuolumne; also, Lyel canyon and Donohue and everything north of the meadows that overlook them.  So yeah there are some spectacular views to be had. Even views from the top of Lembert dome, at sunset for example, can be pretty sweet. Especially in the spring. Just saying.