High Sierra Topix

Some friends and I backpacked a 40 mile loop in Yosemite NP over last weekend. The rough itinerary was as follows:

Day 1 - Mirror Lake TH to Snow Creek Trail to campsite north of Mount Watkins
Day 2 - Campsite to Olmsted Point to Tenaya Lake to Sunrise Lakes
Day 3 - Sunrise Lakes to Clouds Rest to JMT (Sunrise Creek) to High Trail leading towards Merced Lake to campsite on bluff before Echo Valley
Day 4 - Echo Valley to Lost Valley to Little Yosemite Valley to JMT to Mist Trail to Happy Isles to Half Dome Village for pizza/beer

Overall we had a great time with few if any issues. Tenaya Creek was only knee deep (using the stepping stones) and was actually reasonably warm. There was still a descent amount of snow between Tenaya Lake and Sunrise, but we were able to navigate this area without even consulting our GPS. Plus the snow was hard enough that we never postholed. Sunrise Lakes was mosquito infested, but we came prepared with DEET and bug nets. Our two other campsites were very nice with not too many bugs.

Here is the full trip report I wrote up with all my pictures: https://backpackers-review.com/trip-rep ... ckpacking/

And here are some highlights:

Snow Creek Trail view


Olmsted Point view


Tenaya Creek crossing


Snow on way to clouds rest


Lookout near sunrise


High Trail view


Lost Valley Sunset


Lost Valley river


Little Yosemite Valley

Grate Poast!

I have the biggest granite ______ right now.

Thanks! It was a really fun loop. Obviously there were crowds near the valley and by Tenaya Lake and Clouds Rest. However, once we started hiking out towards Merced Lake, we didn't see anyone else on the trail. It was like we had 15 miles of beautiful trail to ourselves. Once we hit Little Yosemite Valley that all changes though (which we expected)...