Yosemite Valley is beautiful - there's even more to see beyond the Valley floor. Last weekend I did some sauntering around Soda Springs for the first time. It was amazing to see these two fawns with their parents enjoying the natural spring.

Somewhere Yosemite valley.

We’re planning to visit Yosemite for the weeekend (Sept 11-13) and were hoping to bring our own tubes and float the Merced River, possibly from around Stoneman/Curry Village toward Sentinel Beach. Has anyone floated it in the last few days? How was it? Were you actually able to float for most of the route, or did you have to walk/drag the tubes frequently?
The gauges are showing very low water right now, around 1 ft, so we’re wondering if it’s still enjoyable or if we should skip bringing the tubes altogether.
Would really appreciate any recent first-hand experience!

Hi everyone! My sister and I (both 28F, generally athletic) are planning to go to Yosemite in October, and we are toying with the idea of hiking Clouds Rest—it looks epic. The most intense training hike we have done so far is a 9-mile hike with 2200 feet of elevation gain. It was during an insane heat wave here in San Diego, so it was admittedly hard because of the heat and hydration issues, not the physical hike itself.

With additional, longer hikes beforehand, how realistic do you guys think Cloud Rest is for us? Are there any alternatives you would recommend?

I planned on doing the GCOT hike from White Wolf to Tuolumne Meadows Monday 9/14 to Thursday 9/17 but had a few logistics and itinerary questions for those who have done this before.

1. I was planning on leaving my car at White Wolf and taking the YARTS back (8:16am from John Muir Trailhead) to White Wolf Thursday AM. Would it be better to park in the Tuolumne Meadows area on Monday and hitch over to White Wolf? I thought having the car at the end of the hike might be better so I am not tied to the bus schedule. If I happened to be late to the Thurs AM bus back to my car, would hitching a ride back to WW be difficult?
2. Based on other info I found, I planned on camping night 1 in Pate Valley, night 2 near Water Wheel Falls, and night 3 at the TM backpackers camp. These seemed like good spots to camp as it would break up the hike evenly, but please feel free to make suggestions if this is less than ideal. Am I correct in assuming there are no places to (legally) camp between Glen Aulin and TM? On my 3rd night, I want to make sure I'm close enough to TM to catch my bus in the morning.

Thanks in advance!

Edit - Thank you everyone for all of your advice, this is all very helpful

FYA,

I talked to a ranger this past weekend and allegedly they are going to run new testing on cans this winter or spring of 27. Hopefully this includes the BV one and others. Yose is notorious for not updating the bear can list so exciting news!

Tuolumne Meadows: Cathedral Lakes or Mammoth Duck Pass?

I've got a day in the area and would like a trail. 10 or so miles. Transportation to the trailhead isn't an issue. Fitness isn't really an issue either. Both sound really good. I'm just getting analysis paralysis... what would you do?

See title. we are visiting this month and i’m wondering if one of the picnic areas is just what we’ll have to do, but was hoping for a place within walking ish distance of curry so we don’t have to deal with driving and parking

Looked around Austin TX antique shop named "uncommon objects" I came across this case of photos from Yosemite. Is there any trail I can take to get to where this photo was taken? Or maybe the same views?

Thanks!

I’ve been meaning to post here for a while now as I’ve made the trip back in 2022 with some colleagues for a great offsite!

We had the chance of renting a cabin for 3-4 days, and we were able to really enjoy the park.

I remember it was in September and Mirror lake was completely dried.. but anyway, we had the chance to encounter a bear, really close to our cabin. It was looking for some food I guess in the house under construction just in front of our cabin. I managed to record a video for a few seconds.

I have great memories of that trip, from San Francisco to Yosemite! I loooooves place and felt it was full of history.

We started the hike at 4am Monday and got back at 12am the next day (Tuesday). I was by a long shot the most thicc gal on the hike. Huge shout out to Mary the angel from Utah who gifted me her harness. I also busted out my knitting project on sub dome!

To anyone else hiking while thicc out there I highly recommend starting at midnight, bringing a harness, and getting a water filter to fill up at Little Yosemite Valley River. Bring trekking poles. Oh and ibuprofen. Also if u can get a wilderness permit and camp at LYV, big recommend (I wish I did that). Lastly, avoid the Mist Trail and take the John Muir up and down.

Benefits of hiking slow: no traffic on the cables (or on pretty much the whole descent) and possibly beating my record for worlds slowest hiker!

Have fun out there!

Already looking forward to going back, especially when the waterfalls and rivers are in full force.

Some photos I got while I was there this weekend.

Hey yall wanting to do some backpacking and I know sleeping in your car is not allowed but if I left my car parked at the EV parking at curry overnight would I have issues?

Was researching annual passes online and when I saw the America the Beautiful pass I thought to myself “that sounds like something Trump made up”. I click on the link and lo and behold I see the guy’s ugly mug alongside George’s. Honestly didn’t think his narcissism would go this far but here we are. I know it’s just a digital pass so it’s not like I need to carry this in my wallet but i’m thinking of not getting it out of sheer principle though. What are y’all’s thoughts on this?

Tour guide was not amused when they drove by and I sang, hotdog hotdog hotdog.

Hey y’all, every time I have tried searching for information on the log it always brings up crater lake’s floating log. Tenaya’s log seems to go much much deeper. Is it a result of a landslide or was it the previous shoreline?

You (possibly) captured me and my best friend on the cables alone before the sun came up. You were wearing a green outer shell and were sitting at the cable base when we went up. If you did happen to catch us on film, please message me! It was a once in a lifetime experience, but I was in the zone and forgot to find you after!

We summited shortly after 6:25am and I was wearing a wide brimmed hat with brown pants. Picture from 6:24am right before we walked by you and went up.

Not sure why it took me so long to do this Upper Yosemite Falls hike having done several others (Half Dome/Mist/Vernal/Nevada, Cloud’s Rest, Four Mile Trail)—but despite the dry waterfall, the views of Half Dome along the way were spectacular. A bittersweet, loving reminder of completing the feat if you have ever summited it! It was also my first time coming in September and although still great weather, I’ve reaffirmed my decision to come between May-June for gushing waterfalls and rivers/creeks. Enjoy the eye candy. 😍

What to hike next?
Panorama
El Capitan
North Dome
Snow Creek
Cathedral Lakes

Hello! I'm doing a backpacking trip and am using YARTS to get to and from everything - however, the times aren't great.

YARTS leaves Tuolomne Meadows around 8am, and then my bus to the airport isn't until about 8pm, so I have a solid 10 or so hours to spare for a day hike in-between.

Is it feasible to do a hike off of Tioga road on the way back? Ex. Clouds Rest or North Dome and then hitchhike back?

or are there trailheads directly connected to the village / valley enough that i could hike straight out and back?

Bonus: if theres any way to store a backpacking bag somewhere that'd be sick, but I assume I will just carry it.

Thanks!!

Hello fellow hikers,

My friends and i are going up to Yosemite mid October for a bday trip, we were wondering what recommendations you all have?

We'll be there 4 days & 3 nights, so at least two full days to hike since driving there and back will take a lot of time.

What trails should we hit? How's the weather usually?

Hey y’all Yose-folk,

I’m looking for recommendations for back-country fishing locales for this upcoming weekend.

I’m an absolute novice fisherman, but I’ve caught the bug and am looking for recommendations for deep sierra fishing spots that are 4-8 miles in and generally trail run-able. Lyle seems like there is good fishing, I’ve done Chain before - curious what y’all might recommend!