Yosemite October Trip

[HanginEgger]

A little late posting, but wanted to share my experience hiking / hanging in Yosemite with my daughter mid October.

We spent three nights in Curry village cabin tents followed by two nights wilderness camping.
We were able to get our wilderness permit 7 days before our planned camping trip. The email with the permit info had a link to the weather forecast which predicted night time temperatures of 26 to 28 degrees f with 15-30 mph winds. Well, that could be sporty!
All my research showed that padding is required under tree straps, so I packed several squares of closed cell foam to use for this purpose. When picking up our wilderness permits the ranger said she had never heard of the strap padding requirement, and a second ranger there said that he just learned of this and that it only applies to oak trees which would not be growing where we’re camping.
They both told us that the tree padding was unnecessary.

After hiking the steep Mist Trail we set up camp at Little Yosemite Valley hikers camp, then continued on to Half Dome. Unfortunately, large crowds, heat, and running out of water prevented us from summiting Half Dome, but we otherwise had a great day. The views were amazing!
We were very thankful that temperatures didn’t get below 40 degrees that night, with absolutely no wind.

Our set up was two Warbonnet Ridgerunners with Superfly tarps. My daughter was enclosed in a spindrift sock. We slept very well that night.

The next day we hiked the Clouds Rest trail, enjoying some great views of Yosemite Valley. The views were a bit obscured by the smoke from the controlled burns in the valley, but it was still an incredible hike.

We spent a second calm, beautiful night in Little Yosemite Valley, and the next day took the john Muir Trail to the valley floor.

Overall I couldn’t have happier with our trip. I plan to return to Yosemite in May 2024. Hopefully my younger daughter will join me, and we can make it to the top of Half Dome!

C1.jpgFire.jpgSmoke.jpg

[HandyRandy]

Nice, we were there in October as well. The only time I have ever had Yosemite Rangers require tree strap padding is in Camp 4 and cardboard is what they recommended.

[joe411k]

Sounds like an awesome trip. I would love to get my kids out there to do something similar in the next few years. When I was there in September, the host at the backpacker's campground asked that I pad the trees with little sticks and I obliged. She said that in the backcountry I did not need to pad the trees but wanted me to do it in the backpacker's campground since it receives so much traffic.

Were you hiking Half Dome on a weekend? I would have thought that the crowds might have slowed some in October but I could be wrong. When I did it in September I timed it so that I was going up Half Dome just after all the day hikers had left to hike back to the valley.

[HanginEgger]

I didn't run into any rangers on the trail. Since it was the off season the crowds were pretty light.
Have you ever stayed at the Northwoods backpackers campground? I could stay there before the before / after wilderness permit dates. I wasn't sure how crowded & if there would be trees available.

[HanginEgger]

Yes, we hiked Half Dome on a Saturday. It was a beautiful day and the first weekend that the cables were down. There were a ton of people in from the Bay Area for the weekend. They said the crowd was unusually heavy that day. We made it to the top of sub dome and watched the line for a while. It was barely moving.
Next time I plan to spend the night at LYV camp and head up early before the crowds from the valley arrive.

[joe411k]

Im
Have you ever stayed at the Northwoods backpackers campground? I could stay there before the before / after wilderness permit dates. I wasn't sure how crowded & if there would be trees available.

I stayed in the backpacker’s campground behind the north pines car camping campground in September. I walked through the north pines campground to access it via a short trail. I got there early in the day, maybe 1 pm or so and there was no one there. I found some suitable trees for hanging right behind the pit toilets and went ahead and set up camp. When I laid in the hammock for the first time to test it I immediately caught a waft of pit toilet smell and thought hmm should I move. As I recall there were not a ton of spots for hanging a hammock there although I’m sure I could have found another one if I really had to.

Also, by the evening the campground had filled up (with tents). And funny enough two park rangers came around and told us that a bear had been foraging nearby for food in recent nights! Not what you want to hear right before going to sleep on night #1!

So long story short you can probably hang there but I’d get there early to claim a spot. Talking with the camp host I got the impression that the campground is pretty full most nights during the peak months.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HanginEgger]

North Pines is what I meant. That is pretty much what I expected. (The crowds, not the bears.)
Thanks

[psyculman]

Thank you, most beautiful.