How many miles of the JMT is in Yosemite. I guess we enter at Yosemite Valley, where do we exit the park? What is the average amount of days people spend in the park.
Thanks!!!
Leif
Yosemite: how many days... Exit location
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#2
The old book I have says about 37 miles from Happy Isles to Donahue Pass. I slept in the park three nights, making the mistake of camping in Lyall Canyon - bear alley. Avoid that if you can. Mine was a fairly leisurely hike - 18 days in all for the JMT. I wasn’t in a hurry.
Ginny
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#3
I plan on Camping near Sunrise Lakes/High Sierra Camp the first night, and in Lyell Canyon on night two. If I don’t spend too much time at Tuolumne Meadows eating & showering I will be out of Yosemite by the end of day two.
Thinair
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#4
I did Camp 4, Little Yosemite, Sunrise Camp, Tuolomne then bear alley (or Lyall Canyon base camp) before cresting Donahue pass. Depends what sort of shape you’re in I guess, I trained for it but ended up taking it easy cuz the place is so gorgeous. Happy trails man, the JMT is still my favorite.
Ross
Ross
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#5
Donohue Pass is the park boundary you’ll pass over.
as for bears - we had three bears come through our camp at Sunrise Creek. one stole a pack (thankfully he dropped it quickly) and one bluff-charged us. a guy i know hiked through the same area and saw a bear sitting in a tree, eating out of a ripped sack full of food. i have heard plenty about the bears in Lyell Canyon! :eek: Stay on guard in Yosemite, the bears are just nasty there.
tarbubble
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#6
I would count on 3 days to get out. If you can bear to do a couple alternate miles, you can spend the first night on the shoulder of Cloud’s Rest. The next day, you can make it to Tuolomne. The next day, you can cross Donohue Pass and then youre out of Yos. from there. It only gets more beautiful as you go along!
Tuolomne is stocked! They’ve got killer food for good prices. There’s no sense in climbing out of Yos. with a ton of food.
See you at Trail Days? I can give you more details then if you still have questions.
Tha Wookie
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#7
We did 2 nights – 1 night at Sunrise and 1 night with the bears at Lyell Canyon. The following day we climbed up and over Donahue and out of Yosemite. I absolutely agree with Wookie that you should not carry lots of food out of the Valley. It is so easy to resupply at the Tuolumne Meadows store, or if you prefer to bring your own, you could leave some food in one of the bear boxes there overnight.
Kanga
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#9
There are the same for most of the route from Tuolemne Meadows to just before Whitney. There is a stretch between Thousand Island Lake and Red’s Meadow where they diverge. There are three route possibilities there - none bad, but I think the JMT is the best of the three options.
Ginny
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#10
The JMT North of Reds Meadow is certainly the most scenic. Be sure that when you get near Devils Postpile you hike the old trail which goes by the base of the Postpile otherwise you will end up on the official route that the Park Service routed away from that area. I heard that the rerouted section sucks and is mostly for horses.
Thinair
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#11
You can definitely get from the Valley to Donahue Pass in three days, but it’s a bit of a haul. Valley to Sunrise HSC will definitely be a taxing day (more than 6000’ of vertical gain), but the upside (beside the fact that it’s an amazing place to camp) is that you should able to pull into TM the next morning before lunchtime, grab a burger, resupply, and get hiking again by noon or a little later.
If you can make the miles, keep hiking past Lyell Base Camp. There are some amazing campsites up above 10K’ – a couple right next to the first big river crossing, and a few more within 1/2 mile or so below there. Solitude, amazing scenery, and I’ve never had any problems with bears up high.
The higher you get up Donahue Pass before setting camp, the easier it will be to haul through Rush Creek and get to 1000 Island Lake the next day …
Brian
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#12
I was thinking of getting dropped off in the valley or Tuolumne and hiking into Red’s Meadow, any suggestions? How many miles/days?
thanks.
Stephen Abronson
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#13
You could make that trip in 3 fairly long days or in 4 slightly more reasonable days. First day out of Tuolume, shoot to get up fairly high in Lyell Canyon, go over Donahue and Island passes to Thousand Island Lake or Garnet Lake the next day, and cruise the rest of the way on day 3. It’s around 40 miles total, I believe.
br
fredalbaroad
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#14
Stephen,whatever you do, have one of the killer shakes at the diner in Red’s Meadow.:boy
Bill Harris