R02 TR: Tioga Road Mono/Parker Pass to Yosemite Valley Aug 2015

[NoBoHiker]

1st trip report here - just wanted to share a little story about one of my Yosemite hikes from a few weekends ago. Thanks for all the other reports I have been reading on this board by the way!

I drove up to Yosemite after work on Friday evening and took the first Hiker Bus from the Valley to Tuolumne Meadows on Saturday morning - I was disappointed to learn that the Park Service will discontinue this shuttle soon, this is the last season
I then walked the 3/4 Mile from the Visitors Center to the Ranger station even though the Tuolumne Meadows shuttle arrived at the same time - yep, I have my priorities
I had no reservation, but a permit for Mono/Parker Pass can always be had so I set out 11:30am from the Mono/Parker Pass Trailhead, soon made it up to Spillway Lake and then XCountry up to Helen Lake and then over Kuna Pass down into the Lyell Canyon and over to Donohue Pass and the JMT. A storm was moving in as soon as I was over Kuna Pass, it started raining several times but as soon as I stopped to pitch my tent it stopped and I could move on, I could see quite a bit of rain in the distance but I got lucky and stayed mostly dry. By the way the weather report at the Ranger station said 15% chance of rain
By the way, the view of Lyell Glacier from the Pass is amazing, I'll have to come back!

View from Spillway Lake up towards Helen Lake:

Close to the top of Kona Pass:

Near lakes without a name at elevation 11500:

View from Donahue Pass south, looks like a fresh dump of snow (or maybe this is just me being tired at that point):

I then headed down Lyell Canyon to spend the night near the JMT Vogelsang Trailhead.
Throughout the night I heard coughing and other noises, but when at first daylight it turned out a deer spent the night right next to my tent and it didn't care about me at all, only when I got up and started walking it casually strolled away - that is a first for me
I was not in the mood for fixing breakfast so I headed up to Vogelsang High Sierra Camp for Coffee, then down to Merced Lake and via Little Yosemite Valley where I stopped often for pictures since it was my first time there, then down to the Yosemite Vally arriving around 4pm, a few hours before my estimated arrival time.

Little Yosemite Vally - this is the burnt area from the 2014 fire (I think).

What an amazing weekend and a great Cross Country route, I'll definitively have to do Kuna again and spend a night inbetween Kuna Pass and Donahue, it's a great spot shooting time lapses.
I still have to total up the Miles one of these days, but in any case, I was happy with my less than 30 hours hike. Great impressions & pictures

Thanks for reading my post. I am always interested in weekend hikes which can be easily reached from the Bay Area, so please keep posting everyone. I also have to write up and share trip reports from the several other weekend trips I have taken this year.
Cheers,
Rick

References: Part of the trip was inspired by this report:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9908&p=74660&hilit=spillway#p74660
so, thanks!

Map indicating the first possible camp sites coming from the Mono/Parker Pass drainage since camping is not allowed there.
red - PCT/JMT - Lyell Canyon
Orange - XCountry route

[LightRanger]

Sweet TR. Thanks!

[maverick]

Thanks Rick, nice first TRm and pretty pictures, keep them coming.

[Rockyroad]

Sounds like a great loop. Thanks for posting. (I didn't know deer coughed!)

[giantbrookie]

Nice report and a nifty and relatively uncommonly traveled route for the first part of your trip (ie the Kuna Pass part).

[The hermit]

Did the ranger mention any restrictions on camping? I read you need to cross parker pass to camp

[giantbrookie]

Did the ranger mention any restrictions on camping? I read you need to cross parker pass to camp

You can't camp within that drainage (ie the drainage that has Spillway and Helen Lake in it), which means that crossing Kuna Pass gets you to a place you can camp in addition to going over Parker Pass. I went this way in summer '14 (over Kuna Pass) then went entirely off trail to Lost Lakes (upper Rush Creek) for my camp spot on day 1 (see viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11528&p=86990&hilit ... kes#p86990). The camping restriction makes this trailhead advantageous for adventurous trips in this area, because not being able to camp within easy distance of the road makes this trailhead unpopular and less likely to fill its quota on any given entry date.

[NoBoHiker]

You can't camp within that drainage

Correct, the Rangers do point this out, so you'll need to get over the pass first and there is a dry camping opportunity coming up, but I'd recommend moving on to one of the lakes, the larger one actually did look like a really nice camp site, I'll go back one day, that is for sure. I also recall I stumbled across quite a few animal bones (I think), not sure if this is a bad sign ;-)

I added a map to the post to help locating the camp sites.

Rick

[rightstar76]

I thought that the Mono/Parker Pass trailhead is a never camp in Yosemite trailhead, only the national forest no matter how many days you go. I thought with this permit, you can day hike into the park during your trip, but you have to always spend your nights outside of the park.

[AlmostThere]

I thought that the Mono/Parker Pass trailhead is a never camp in Yosemite trailhead, only the national forest no matter how many days you go. I thought with this permit, you can day hike into the park during your trip, but you have to always spend your nights outside of the park.

You can't camp in Dana Meadows or along the Dana fork of the Tuolumne. Kuna Basin is outside that area, and more than four miles from the Lyell trailhead, therefore fair game. Donahue is even farther from the no-camp zone.

the actual restriction is not to camp within four miles of the Mono Parker trailhead, which means outside the park boundaries on either pass.


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