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Yosemite Tuolumne, Lyell-Donohue-Waugh-Koip-Parker
You can't do this incredible hike justice in words or photos, it was my first backpacking experience. It includes beautiful meadows, trees, mountain streams, high small mountain lakes, a large mountain lake, lots of snowmelt streams, some interesting wildlife, awesome views of big mountains, some year round snow, and 3 mountain passes! Yosemite high country is amazing. The Tuolumne Meadows area is at about 8,500 ft in elevation. The passes are 11 and 12,000 ft and there are lots of up and down in between. Being in good shape with healthy joints is a must, there is less oxygen at the higher elevations so try to acclimate if possible. Many portions of hike very strenuous, sometimes dangerous. This was a 4 day hike. I put 35 miles but it's not completely certain. On my map, a large section of the far part of the trail doesn't have a mileage on it, I estimated. This was September, we had slept in the car the night before near Tioga Pass and it was 28F in the morning. That was the coldest. We did have frost on our tent one morning though. The day temps got up to high 70s. Once the sun came up in the morning it seemed the temp went straight from 40 to 60. We only had a few small clouds sneak into the all blue sky the whole trip. There were good water sources all along this trail even in September, the driest time for the high country. Although it was the week of Labor Day, we still didn't see that many people, especially in the remote areas of our route. We started at the Tuolumne Meadows Wilderness station trailhead and headed up Lyell Canyon (this first part of the trail is a section of the John Muir Trail), meadows for quite a while then a fairly tough climb at the end of the Canyon. We camped at a nice forested area after that and before the next tough stretch towards Donohue Pass. There are previously used campgrounds with fire rings, logs for sitting, worn spots for a tent, if you can find them. We were lucky enough to find one quite a bit off the trail here and one for our next night as well. The next day was the ascent of Donohue Pass. First we had a climb like the end of the last day, then an incredibly scenic flat valley with a small mountain lake and great views. Then another quick and large gain in elevation to the next amazing high valley area with another pretty blue small lake. Then the final climb above the treeline up the pass. Donohue Pass is at around 11,100 feet and is on the border of Yosemite National Park and Ansel Adams Wilderness in the Inyo National Forest. The next third of the trail would be outside of the park in Inyo National Forest. The backside of the pass is a steep rocky descent for a while then a smoother descent down the valley, back into the trees and eventually to beautiful large Waugh Lake. The terrain around Waugh Lake is very up and down and a bit rocky, finding a camping area is a little tricky. We found a previously used campsite with a fire ring between the trail and the lake in a small flat area just past halfway on the lake. Day 3 was down a little bit then a constant climb for a long ways, past very beautiful Gem Lake. It's a long 1,600 vertical feet of constant uphill from Gem Lake to the top of the crest before the next valley. Then holding to the mountains on the left of the valley past some pretty ponds and a bit more uphill we came into the Alger Lakes area, magnificent lakes right against the steep walls of the mountains on the far side. The highest lake, across a ridge from the trail, sits in a scenic cirque in front of very steep and tall mountains. This high elevation area is nearly treeless, with some big shrubs and nice grass. The trail goes into a grassy area with lots of tiny rivulets that run out from under the rocks at the base of Koip and Parker peaks which seem to be gigantic piles of rocks. The rivulets sometimes go under the vegetation making sort of boggy spots. We camp in a soft rise in the grassy area between rivulets right at the base of the rising rocky climb of Koip Peak Pass. Looking back down the valley you can see many lines of mountains and a ski area and, later, some very nice alpenglow. Day 4 began right away with Koip Peak Pass. It took us an hour and a half to make the 1,200 vertical feet to the nearly 12,200 ft apex of the pass where it was cool and windy. We were treated with amazing views back into our valley on the way up and at the top we could see Mono Lake very far off below in the desert to the right, a very deep canyon straight ahead, and Parker pass to the left with lots of small cascades running down into the deep valley. We could also see the line of our trail head off to the right and then below zig zagging all the way down. It took one hour on the way down. This was the most dangerous part of the trip, and strenuous on the knees because we didn't use trekking poles. There were spectacular views all the way down, especially at the turns in the switchbacks. After the downhill, the rise to Parker Pass began. Thankfully this was by far the easiest of the three passes, at the top it is softly sloping land at 11,100 ft with vegetation even. It was all nice downhill from there to the Dana Meadows trailhead where we caught a bus back to Tuolumne Meadows. The easiest parts of the trail were at the beginning and end, in meadows. I don't recommend this for a first timer like I was, too tough.
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