High Sierra Topix

The pass to Yosemite...a crapshoot at best. When will it open?
This year, I am guessing June 22.
Mark

Based upon last year's opening date, your guess is pretty spot on. But I'm gonna be optimistic and guess a week earlier, say June 14. I'm looking forward to the opening, hoping that the high country won't be too suncupped allowing for easy access to some excellent spring skiing.

So are we getting a pool together? I'm in for June 17. My son's B-day! And this year the day before Father's day? Looking a the snow in Yosemite last weekend and the river flow, it sure seems like last year but warm spells are coming!

Late June if we lucky. Last year they started plowing April 15th and they opened June 24th . This year they will not start until May 1st. Here is a link:

http://www.nps.gov/yose/now/tioga.htm

Even when things become accessible (err...July), trail conditions will remain soggy and mosquito ridden until late July and maybe even up until mid August this season...

Well, I've got nine bliss-filled days off starting June 17, so if it opens by then I'll be thrilled!! I think my big plans are pretty much shot, so I'll probably just be roaming all over the Sierra, doing a couple two or three day backpacks.

I plan on visiting the Saddlebag Lake area from June 21-29 and hope to do a 3 day backpacking trip off the Tuolumne Meadows area. We typically have gone backpacking behind Saddlebag Lake but want to see a different area this time. Any suggestions for the Tuolumne area? Fly fishing is the main priority.

This will be my 4th time in the area and hopefully the roads will be open by then since we fly into Oakland (I live in north western Illinois).

OK, I’ll bite. Here is the personal skinny on the Tioga pass area. First get a good and detailed map and follow along. You don’t have a map handy? Well, punch up: http://www.topozone.com/map.
And enter “Saddlebag Lake, Ca”, and when the map finally does come up, click: “large-scale, 1; 100,000, update map” and follow along. You may have to fiddle a bit to get the hang of the map but…Oh, might have to hit the little green arrows on the map bottom and/or sides too. This map always comes in handy so you might "add to favorites."
I am not going to tell you exactly where exactly to fish now; I will only give you a few strong hints to prompt you. Let us proceed west to east.
1) Let us start at Tuolumne Meadows, near the Yosemite store/ gas station area, inside the park
This area gets all the traffic, so you ain’t gonna do much near the road here. On the South side, the river upstream comes from the Lyell fork, and there are good prospects between the Campground and the park boundary (about 2-3 miles away). Follow it up, well past the camp. Then there is a great stretch of river that extends to maybe a ¼ mile above the HSC and keeps going. Many small trout here but the scenery is great!
Better on the north side of the road, take the marked trail towards Soda Springs, after about ¼- 1/2 mile leave the trail and then x-country to the west a bit, to some nice meandering pools of the lazy Tuolumne at this point. (Hint #1)
2) Heading east- up to the park boundary and the entrance kiosk area. At the park entrance now, on the south side, the stream/river is now about 1/8 of a mile south- across the open meadow- and there are some very nice pools- unexpected (Hint #2) that you can follow east towards Ellery and Tioga Lakes. The land is a bit rugged but…
3) The lakes area: These two alpine lakes are stocked on a regular basis and let us start with the one on the west. (I forget which is which …I will call them east and west- closest to Yosemite.)
Anyway the most western one is long and I have always done well on the most western edge- near the inlet.- maybe travel over to the far too side too as it gets less pressure. There is a deep channel that runs into the lake from the inlet.
The second lake-the east one-, I usually fish the east side, near the dam, and over off the big rocks at the far side of the dam; Less people and better action.
4) I say though forget both lakes, unless they are just stocked and you actually like stockers, and concentrate on the river in the area just below the park and continues all the way to the area near the Tioga Pass Resort, TPR,- (remember this name) and the turnoff near Saddlebag Lake.
Just a little west of the TPR, the river is south of the road now and there are some great pools about ¼ mile in and continuing up and down south of the road. (Hint #3)
5) The river then crosses the road, and is now on the north side. Take the ok paved / then dirt road toward Saddlebag (The Lake itself is north about 3 miles in.) and go about ½ mile in and park (Turnouts are there for a reason!) Head west a bit off the use trails to the river and all the way up river from there to Saddlebag (about a 2 mile stretch). (*****big, big Hint #4******)
6) Saddlebag and the ferry. There is a great campground at Saddlebag and a little café/store there. I say camp here. The owner- Richard- is a nice guy too.. There is also a ferry that will take you across (and pick you up later too!) to the far end of this beautiful, 10,000 ft elevation, 2 ½ mile-long lake into the 20 lakes basin area.
Fishing on the far end can be productive (Hint #5), renting a boat works too (Hint # 6), as well as hiking to any of the 20 lakes along the 5 mile stretch of trail at the far end (Hint #7).
One more thing, the owner (tall skinny chap) of the Tioga Pass Resort (you can find it by doing a search with Google) has cabins for rent too, (last hint-#8 is for the wife.) and is very knowledgeable about local fishing spots.
Good luck,
Mark

Mark,

Thanks for all the info.

Mike

I will echo the thanks too. I met Richard in the early 90s when he was a campground host at Elery lake (your east most lake). We had a blast! We did a day hike into the 20 lakes basin, then he hosted a fish fry at his trailer. Really nice people. I was very happy for him when he got the resort.

Thanks again Mark!

Jerry