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Hey all!
This is my first post here and im looking for some campsite recommendations for my upcoming route in June. I got the Glen Aluin pass through permit for 6/26/25 and my plan was to descend the canyon and spend my first night between Muir Gorge and Pate Valley. Day 2 plan is to ascend out of the canyon early am to beat the heat towards White Wolf spending the night somewhere near Lukens and the Middle Tuolumne fork to avoid any sort of long water carry to and from camp. Day 3 is a short one to Ten Lakes giving myself some time to explore the basin if I can. Then day 4 is back to the car in the Tuolumne Meadows parking lot .
Open to any and all advise y'all are willing to throw my way as well as previously mentioned, camp sites at or around the areas I marked on the map.
That's sounds like a lot of miles to me. I generally figure the GCT is a three or four day trip, not a two day trip.
Campsites? There are lots of campsites in the canyon, and getting a little away from the river will give you more privacy. If you make it to Pate Valley, you'll have plenty of options, especially if you are a group of one .
It would be helpful to understand a bit more about your fitness and familiarity with these types of distances and elevation gain/drops per day, so I'm not going to comment on those aspects.
I did this same route out of the Lukens trailhead from Tioga two years ago in four nights, camping at Ten Lakes, then a bit prior to Glen Aulin, then where Register Creek hits the Tuolumne (we got caught in a major hail storm so stopped earlier that planned), then had a leisurely day to Pate Valley and here's what I'd note:
- Ten Lakes is notorious for people choosing bad/illegal campsites that have degraded the ecosystem. Please be thoughtful!
- The South Fork Cathedral Creek valley before you climb up and around Tuoloumne Peak (quite gorgeous), and the one before you get to the junction with the Murphy Creek Trail route to Glen Aulin (less visually stunning) will be quite buggy that time of year. I recommend you look to camp outside those zones, or head off trail a bit to get to an outlook that might pick up a breeze (for example, there are camp-able spots west of the trail on granite a few miles before you get to McGee Lake).
- There will be plenty of places that appear camp-able on the stretch of trail east of White Wolf where you have a marker, but you can't legally camp that close to White Wolf, Harden Lake, or Lukens Lake. Check the Yosemite regulations.
ashleyamarsh wrote: ↑Sun Jun 01, 2025 1:04 pm
It would be helpful to understand a bit more about your fitness and familiarity with these types of distances and elevation gain/drops per day, so I'm not going to comment on those aspects.
I did this same route out of the Lukens trailhead from Tioga two years ago in four nights, camping at Ten Lakes, then a bit prior to Glen Aulin, then where Register Creek hits the Tuolumne (we got caught in a major hail storm so stopped earlier that planned), then had a leisurely day to Pate Valley and here's what I'd note:
- Ten Lakes is notorious for people choosing bad/illegal campsites that have degraded the ecosystem. Please be thoughtful!
- The South Fork Cathedral Creek valley before you climb up and around Tuoloumne Peak (quite gorgeous), and the one before you get to the junction with the Murphy Creek Trail route to Glen Aulin (less visually stunning) will be quite buggy that time of year. I recommend you look to camp outside those zones, or head off trail a bit to get to an outlook that might pick up a breeze (for example, there are camp-able spots west of the trail on granite a few miles before you get to McGee Lake).
- There will be plenty of places that appear camp-able on the stretch of trail east of White Wolf where you have a marker, but you can't legally camp that close to White Wolf, Harden Lake, or Lukens Lake. Check the Yosemite regulations.
Hope you have a great trip!
This is super helpful information! Thank you!
Regarding the fitness and familiarity I'm in pretty decent shape do a lot of endurance and resistance training have a handful of multi day trips under my belt as well as 15+mile day hikes with loaded packs and vert. Im going to do an overnight shakedown trip from Crab Tree to Big Lake in the Emigrant Wilderness prior to my trip as well.
The reason for the route is that I won a Whitney permit after I got this one so I decided to turn it into a training trip. For example on the day I plan to ascend out of pate valley and the day head back to the car from Ten Lakes I had planned on waking up and getting on trail no later than 3am to get a few reps doing dark starts and high mile days. However I have been monitoring the snowpack via weekly satellite images im not so sure the ten lakes basin will be completely thawed out by the time I get there and I am concerned about encountering more swamp than trail in some of those sections which im not super excited about navigating in the dark. I have toyed with the idea of going down the canyon in a couple days enjoying the falls and pools then back out in 1 staying the night near McGee to get a high mile high vert gain training day in then exiting via May lake or Murphy creek on Sunday. Any thoughts on this?
I see what you're saying about the camping restrictions near my Lukens waypoint I had totally forgot about that map with the arrows thank you for that reminder. Also as someone who has done this loop if I were to camp at Pate then ascend out of the canyon would you suggest just entering the pain cave and pushing the five extra miles passed the legal camping zone to Ten Lakes? Is it more reasonable to find a camp spot near mid tuolumne fork and have a super low mile day 3 to ten lakes? Or is the better option to camp further up in the canyon above register night 1, spend night 2 nearish the Morrison creek junction only doing part of the climb out and then just push from there to ten lakes on day 3? Sorry for the million questions I am just trying to gather all the info I can from people who have already done it.
I would spend one more day in the canyon (go slower) and then get out quickly. I was not that impressed with Ten Lakes. Nice to travel through, but not necessarily would spend the night there. The heat could be the most challenging part, not the daily miles. Plan on sinking into the river for a cool-off several times a day. The hike up out of Pate Valley to White Wolf could be the crux. Also, I would not camp in Pate Valley. Instead go up the trail a bit. Pate Valley is full of rattlesnakes and bears. Or camp a few miles before coming to Pate Valley. The down-valley end of Muir Gorge has some nice camping once the trail drops to the river. My favorite campsite is directly at the confluence of Cathedral Creek at the waterfall. You have to get off the trail. It has some nice flat ground.
I did a similar route, but reverse. Started at Lukens Lake and back via Ten Lakes. I did not get started until noon because it was the day they opened Tioga Pass and had to wait an hour for final opening. I prefer to go down to Pate Valley and then come up the Tuolumne. This provides better views since you are always looking up towards the falls. I wrote a trip report but now cannot find it. In summary:
Day1. Lukens TH to Morrison Creek, 7.6 mi, 5 hr. +570, -2025 (plus drive)
Day2. Cathedral Creek confluence in GCT, 12.1 mi. 9.5 hr. +2350, -2780
Day3. Cathedral Creek on Rim, 9.4 mi, 8.5 hr. +3350, -710
Day4. Ten Lakes, 12 mi, 9.5 hr. +3230, -2065
Day5. Lukens TH, 12.4 mi, 8.7 hr. +2300, -2585
