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!
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