We're hoping to hike Cloud's Rest on 8/9 and I have a few questions:
1. I'm trying to estimate how long the hike will take us. The only estimate I've seen is 7 hours. Does that sound realistic? If I were hiking MMWT with this group, I'd expect a 16 hr roundtrip (9 up, 6 down, an hour at the top).
2. We are staying in Mammoth. Does a 1h 45m drive to the trailhead (Tenaya Lake) sound right?
3. Are there reliable water sources along (or near) the trail?
4. Do I need to be concerned about air quality (French Fire?)?
5. I have North Dome and Mt. Hoffman info as backup hikes in the event we're in a rush to avoid early afternoon thunderstorms (thanks Akichow!). Any others we should look at?
I know I have more questions, just can't think of them now. Thanks for the input!
1. I think 7 hours sound right. 14 miles. 2. I think even with a little traffic you will be 1:45 3. There are water sources but I don't have the specific info I've seen on sources at my fingertips. There is a nice lake I have a picture of below:
If you have a little extra time (even an hour or so) a slight side hike into Tenaya Canyon is amazing. It is fun to find the sign that states: "Warning: This is not a trail. Travel beyond this point is dangerous without climbing equipment. Return to Tioga Road."
It is safe to go past this sign a bit and see the amazing bowl of granite. You can easily and safely hike as far as you want into the bowl but at least go far enough to see the Half Dome vista open up. Here is a good site explaining this side trip. You start at the Clouds Rest trail and instead of going up you follow the creek which will be dry now.
Hi 63! Last year on the second day of my JMT hike, I took a wrong turn and ended up on the Clouds rest and no regrets though! I can answer some of your q. I came down towards Tenaya lake on that trail and fortunately found a 2 mile branch trail heading to Sunrise camp where I was originally headed that morning. There are at least two streams flowing in that dry year. So you have water after 2 miles into the hike from Tenaya lake TH. Since it was a new trail for me and am running out of water on my descent from CR, I was anxiously querying hikers coming up and they assured me that there are lots of streams in between.
Before starting JMT from the valley, I also stayed in Mammoth for acclimatization and it did help. The 1.5 hrs may not work depending on any one way traffic issues (due to road construction or due to some heavy slow moving trucks). So keep more time for those uncertainties unless you are driving in the night, in which case be wary about deer and other animals crossing.
North dome is about 9 mile round trip and downhill hike to north dome with excellent views! Very easy!
I went up Cloud's Rest from Sunrise TH as part of a longer hike approximately July 9th. There wasn't any water flowing in the creeks that drop from the Sunrise Lakes about 2 mi into the hike. There was water in only 2 places between Sunrise TH and Cloud's Rest: at the tarn about a mile south of the Sunrise Lakes/HSC trail junction and at the small stream shown on Harrison/USGS topos about 0.6mi south of the tarn.
The small stream may well be dry now. It already had a slight green tint 4 weeks ago. The tarn will certainly have water, but be prepared to treat it.
7 hours should be more than enough time for you to complete the hike. It's long, but the elevation gain is only something like 2000ft, so there are a lot of flat stretches.
Be sure to start early if there are forecasted afternoon thunderstorms. There are a ton of mosquitoes in the early morning, so be prepared for that!
I would carry a couple of liters of water to be safe. I wasn't paying close attention, but I think all that was left of the first few creeks was stagnant water. The last water source on the trail is a small stream/creek (around 0.5 mile past the lake/pond shown in the first picture). It was flowing well a couple weeks ago, but I don't know the current condition.
In terms of the fire...I was at Yosemite again on 8/2, and the smoke was pretty disgusting in the early morning (around 6am in the valley). It's not so bad if you're just at rest, but the smoke really irritated my lungs since I was breathing heavily during sustained exercise (hiking uphill quickly). Looking down into the valley, it looked like a big bowl of smoke. The air quality got MUCH better later on in the day, although the views were still hazy. Clouds Rests is farther from the fire than Yosemite Valley, and it's higher in elevation, so I think the air quality will be better there.
My brother and I may be going up Clouds Rest on 8/16. I'm hoping you may treat us with some of your awesome photos once you're back...
I hear that Tenaya Canyon is pretty technical going. It looks pretty tantalizing to me, but here is a TR from Bob Burd, he also includes some photos from the area. I hope this may provide some beta from your potential foray into the area In the view of the High Burd...
@jjoshuagregory (Instagram) for mainly landscape and mountain pics
My brother and I may be going up Clouds Rest on 8/16. I'm hoping you may treat us with some of your awesome photos once you're back...
I hear that Tenaya Canyon is pretty technical going. It looks pretty tantalizing to me, but here is a TR from Bob Burd, he also includes some photos from the area. I hope this may provide some beta from your potential foray into the area In the view of the High Burd...
I just want to make sure that my "Tenaya Canyon" suggestion was not the trip as referenced above with the technical Bob Burd trip. That full canyon trek requires ropes and a few waterfall rappels. I did a portion of this trip a few years ago and it was amazing but would not recommend it for anyone without technical rock climbing experience.
The link I provided was a peek into the Tenaya Canyon Bowl which is not technical and is a relatively easy hike. I went in this area with both my parents and my mother is not comfortable with Clouds Rest. The guy from the report did the hike with a 3 year old on his back.
LOL, yes hopefully some nice pics and an update on the water situation!
Originally Posted By: Chicagocwright
The link I provided was a peek into the Tenaya Canyon Bowl...
That's all we'd do. I originally had 8 hikers that were excited about this trip. Over the last couple of weeks, it's dwindeled down to three. I have my doubts about the others attempting to hike the narrow trail along the ridge approaching Cloud's Rest. The technical part of Tenaya Canyon definitely would not happen.
Chicagowright, how long did this side trip take you?
I really think you can make it the top of the Bowl in 30-45 minutes.
What I would do is start down the trailhead to Clouds Rest as normal. The trail eventually kind of makes a sharp left hand turn to go uphill. Well before that point I would go off trail to the right--straight through the woods. That will open right up to the big bowl. Alternatively you can start at the trailhead and just go up the creek bed. When you are done, instead of coming all the way back to the trailhead, I've just worked my way through the woods and you hit the trail.
Especially if its not windy, I think the knife edge ridge at the end of Clouds Rest is not that bad. But my wife refuses to watch the video I posted...
I will post some photos later today. The hike went well, but I cut the hike short (no Tenaya Canyon). I originally had 8 hikers interested in this trip, with 13 people total going. We had an 11 person condo. In the end, only 2 of us hiked and we had a total of 4 people in the condo, including my 2 yr old son. We cut the hike short because my wife/son were stuck at the condo with no car.
In terms of water, the only place I would count on getting some is the pond. The streams are mostly stagnant or dry at this point. I ended up just carrying all of my water for the hike, since it was cool out and I didn't need much.
