Hi Everyone,
We will be in Yosemite (Curry Village) for 3 nights the last week in June and I have my plans done for the most part as far as hikes and what to see in the park thanks to your posts, my great Yosemite AAA map and wonderful website I listed below.
I would like to get input if you don't mind about getting to Tioga Road from Curry Village.
With the much smaller snowfall this year, all roads are already open as of May 7th.
I have read that it takes 90 minutes to 2 hours to get from Valley Floor to Tioga Rd/Tuolumne Lodge. Does this seem right?
(We plan on hiking up to Upper Yosemite Falls one day early in morning 7:00 am and another day doing Mist Trail-Nevada/Vernal Falls really early.) But if we drove up to Tioga Rd after 2:00 p.m. one day, I have these other 3 questions:
1.) I read that the sunset will be 8:30 p.m that week. Will people still be on hiking trails that late or should we plan to evacuate before then?
2.) Will it be tricky driving back to YO Valley * at night if we left Tioga Rd. around 7:00 p.m.?
3.) What are your favorite areas of Tuolumne Meadows/Tioga Road? Since we are doing these other two big hikes, we would do something less strenuous there, ie level trails, around the meadow for a few hours or even pretty places to just sit and have a picnic.
Background Info:
As we come in from Monterey, we are going to see some of Mariposa Grove at lunch Tuesday, then drive to Glacier Point and Bridalveil Falls before checking in. We will eat at the Ahwahnee (yes have res. there and also for their breakfast when we check out if I need to switch) the first night after checking in, one evening we will stroll around Mirror Lake and listen to Ranger talk, and one evening try to drive to Tioga Road. We could also shift Maripossa to our way out Friday as we leave for L.A. so that isn't set in stone.( Also, we aren't doing the Glacier PT shuttle to then hike down Panorama Trail because it would cost us $125.00 (5x$25 one way) and our budget is already busted. Plus you don't get there until 9:30 and we hope to head out early for some less crowded hiking.)
Thanks for your input on this upper area. I know we are crowding in our days, but we will only be here with our 3 kids once in a lifetime so better see it while we can. But if spending driving time to Tioga isn't worth missing something at Yosemite, we will scratch it.
Thanks a bunch!!
*to Tomsd, I use Yo on all of my notes because it is so much faster! At first I thought you were Randy Jackson from American Idol "YO YO YO" but then it clicked-not too hard.
THIS IS A GREAT WEBSITE FOR PHOTOS AND DETAILED INFO ABOUT HIKES FROM "MR. HALF-DOME" I learned a lot.
http://www.everytrail.com/best/hiking-yosemite-national-park
Yosemite Tuolumne Meadows Tioga Road
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My boys will be 13, 15, and 16 when we are there and we have hiked a lot for hours at a time. I am "training"- going up and down the stairs at home to help with the incline though as mom will be the slowest.
Have mainly taken the beautiful drive to Tuolumne Meadows early in the day and thus - didn't get stuck behind a long line of slow moving traffic. And even though it's only about 60 miles - an hour and a half is probably a fair estimate as there are park speed rules and again, you might get caught behind slower moving drivers.
Also - I wouldn't be concerned about driving back at night - but some people don't feel comfortable doing that.
As for hiking - going up to the top of Yo Falls is a hike - rest assured. Suggest you start by heading up to Vernal Falls, and then depending on how you are doing - press on to Nevada Falls. If you handle that ok - then tackle going up Yo which is a bit longer/higher.
Assume you have seen this guide? http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/valleyhikes.htm
Right... I just found out that Tuolumne Meadows is almost 60 miles from Yosemite Valley like you say, so if we can only go 30 miles an hour(?) it would take 2 hours. Do any recent visitors know if that is the average speed nowadays during the summer? The start of Tioga Road is 17 miles away from the valley floor.
If you are coming from Monterey, Hwy. 156/152/59/140 thru Merced is the most direct way into Yosemite. Mariposa Grove is out of the way on this route, so do it on your way out on Hwy. 41 south to LA.
I can't give much advice on T Meadows, but I would choose to go up early in the day and not drive at night.
You can't even plan on 30mph since the speed limit is 25mph in several areas (it ranges from 25 to 45mph). . . .
And to go faster is nuts -- you don't want to see your rental car after hitting a bear. PLUS, the park service uses radar and issues a lot of tickets. It isn't a road you take to 'make good time'.
When we traveled from Mariposa Grove on getaway day to Monterey we used 41 to 145 to 99 to 152 so you could easily do that (obviously in reverse) without having to drive into the valley first. The route you have from Monterey to Mariposa Grove is fine.
The valley to Lee Vining is 76 miles and it is anticpated by Yosemite National Park's mileage chart to take 2 hours. They show the valley to Tuolumne Meadows to be 90 minutes:
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/upload/mileages9-2007.pdf
Though the sun may set you should expect it to stay light for an extended period of time as twilight lingers quite long. If you left TM at 7 you'd be back to the valley by 8:30 plenty of light.
OK thanks a bunch everyone and I appreciate the link for the time chart/mileage, Suzie. I haven't seen that before on the NPS site.
We absolutely love Tioga Pass, and go there every time we are in Yosemite. There are trails all over the place up there, as you may have seen from your maps. You can hike down to the top of Yosemite Falls -- I have never done that, though. I would not recommend trying to hike back up to Tioga road after dark, just because it's hard to see where you are putting your feet, and I would be concerned about losing the trail. The trailhead, by the way, is not all the way at the meadows. It's probably only 2/3 of the way from the valley floor.
It's so beautiful up there that anywhere you hike will be rewarding. The high Alpine country is my favorite of all.
I would be off the trail by sunset or at least getting really close to being off of it.
We hiked The Mist Trail and came back down a bit on the JMT. Had Panorama Trail been open, we would have hiked it and then finished on the Mist Trail. You would probably want to take the shuttle for that hike, so with 4 people would be some expense involved. However, a lot of people say it is one of the best hikes there and it isn't that crowded. I haven't done it, but certainly would of had it been open last year when we were there.
Even if you know how long it is going to take you to get from Point A to Point B, sometimes there is a bit of traffic tie up in the valley. This seems to be especially true from Noon until 6:00PM.