10-Lakes - Yosemite - Looking for Advice - Newbie...

[Dave_Ayers]

You can do Ten Lakes many ways: from the Ten Lakes trail head; from White Wolf; from May Lakes; from Murphy Creek (Tenaya); etc. The only shuttles on the White Wolf to Olmstead Point stretch are YARTS and the Tuolumne Meadows Tours and Hikers Bus. Both of those have stops at White Wolf and Tuolumne Meadows, but not in between. They will usually drop you off at other trailheads as long as there is room for the bus to stop safely. Ten Lakes TH should be OK for that (but call ahead to make sure). Note that getting a special stop will only work for dropping you off at your the starting point, not for picking you up, so leave your car at a regular shuttle stop or do and out-and-back hike.

There is also the Yosemite run Tuolumne Meadows Shuttle. It stops at various places between Olmstead point and the Tuolumne Lodge, but does not go further west towards Ten Lakes. Note that it stops at the west end (Sunrise) and east end of Tenaya Lake, not the middle (Murphy Creek). So if you finish at Murphy Creek, you'd need to do the easy walk to either end to catch it.

One example option (among many) would be to park at White Wolf, hike to highway 120 below May Lakes, catch the Yosemite Shuttle to TM, and catch YARTS or Tuolumne Hiker Bus back to White Wolf. Tuolumne Peak and Mount Hamilton are along the way and have excellent views if you want to bag a peak or two.

Virtually all the routes are good hikes and make good intro to backpacking hikes. Use the trailhead and mileage report at this page for planning: http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/trailheads.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . If you go from the Ten Lakes TH, the climb to Ten Lakes is from about 7550 to about 9680 over the hump to the lakes area.

These trails all show up in Google Earth (Layers, More, Parks/Rec, US Nat Parks, Trails), though the mileages in Google Earth are about 10-20% low.

Transport links:
YARTS -- http://www.yarts.com/schedule/2014/HWY% ... 0Mono_.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Tuolumne Tours and Hikers Bus -- http://www.yosemitepark.com/tuolumne-meadows-tour.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Yosemite Tuolumne Shuttle -- http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/l ... eID=222906" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;