TL:DR
You don’t have to go very far to see some pristine high sierra lakes and epic sunsets. We did this 12.6 mile thru hike over 3 days/ 2 nights with plenty of time to take in the scenery, relax, and do some day hike exploring. You will either have to shuttle cars, hitchhike, or catch the Tioga Rd Shuttle to do this thru hike. You start at Tenaya Lake and end at Tuolumne Meadows. Main points of interest on this hike are the Sunrise Lakes, Sunrise High Sierra Camp, Cathedral Peak and Cathedral Lakes.
Thoughts
This is a retroactive post. I did this trip before I started this blog but its one worth mentioning. We did this trip back in June of 2014. Thinking back, we did this hike pretty early in the season. If California wasn’t in a drought we probably would’ve been caught up in some snow. I first saw Cathedral Peak when I was on a prior trip, hiking up Mt Hoffmann. There’s just something about its outline against the sky and its name that just stuck in my mind as somewhere I wanted to go. Names have power, or so they say. Luckily, a few of our friends also wanted to do that hike so we applied for the permits and made it happen.
This hike breaches the 9000ft elevation mark so if you’re susceptible to altitude sickness you might opt to do one night at one of the campgrounds on Tioga Road to start acclimating. One of our friend’s is, so we drove down to Yosemite late Thursday night to get one night in before the hike. I didn’t start camping and backpacking until I was in grad school so I think this was my 4th time backpacking ever. Now that I think about it, I can’t believe that trip was only 12 miles…and over 3 days no less. Its cool to be able and look back and see actual progress and an increase in efficiency. We do 12 mile days now and while its still tiring, we think nothing of it. But for being so short, we saw some pretty amazing scenery.
Day 1 is ridiculously short (~3mi) and starts off at the Tenaya Lake/ Sunrise Lakes trailhead. It also has the most elevation gain so maybe its for the best. The whole day is more or less switchbacks and uphill. This is the same trail you would take for Cloud’s Rest which I also recommend. This trail gets a lot of afternoon sun exposure and can get quite hot. There are also no water sources on this section of the hike so its recommended to start early. There will be a fork on the trail, going right takes you to Cloud’s Rest while going left will take you to Sunrise Lakes which is wear we continued on to. There are three Sunrise lakes, all of them beautiful and look great for swimming. It wasn’t quite warm enough for us to go swimming but I imagine in the late summer it would be perfect.
We set up camp around the third Sunrise Lake with plenty of time to wander around and play on the boulders. Small patches up snow were still around with everything else being pretty marshy. Some guys were on the other side of the lake fishing but otherwise we didn’t see too many people. Its hard to pin down the feeling I get backpacking. I think it might just be excitement though. No matter where I am, its the same feeling so its hard to bring novelty to the way I describe the places I’ve been other than physical appearance. Being out there is beautiful, inspiring, refreshing, meditative, and it never gets old. It never loses its impact and I find it literally insane that people go their whole lives without ever wondering what’s out there. Its like a breathe of fresh air for the soul…and I need it. The soul needs excitement.
We hung out, made dinner and enjoyed the sunset. I’m not sure why they’re called the Sunrise Lakes, but sunset was spectacular.
Temperatures plummeted during the night and our nalgenes froze. But once the sun was up, it quickly became suffocating inside our tents. Day 2 was a little longer coming in at ~6 miles. From Sunrise Lakes we hiked past the Sunrise High Sierra Camp. We went to go check it out but nothing was set up yet and no one was around. Everything was bogged down from all the snow melt so for the next few miles, we were in a constant state of mosquito attack. Once we started up toward Cathedral Pass, the mosquito swarms eased up. Came across quite a few deer who probably scared us more than we scared them. This section of the trail is sort of along a ridge. The whole time I was just looking out for that signature outline of Cathedral Peak.
When you first come over the pass, everything kind of opens up. You see Cathedral Peak as well as Upper Cathedral Lake. Our goal was to set up camp at the lower Cathedral Lake which sits more at the base of the peak. Its another mile or so pass the upper lake but it was pretty amazing to finally be there and see it. The trail leading down to the lower lake just kind of disappeared, perhaps from all the mud. We were essentially just trekking straight across a bog until we got to the granite perimeter of the lower lake. Depending on the water flow, you can walk around the perimeter with a brief water crossing where the lake dumps into Teneya Lake. We hiked counterclockwise around to the northern shore and set up camp. The sunset and corresponding alpenglow were pretty stunning that night as was the star gazing but I don’t have a good enough camera for that. Just take my word for it.
We were hiking out on Day 3 but not before we did a quick scramble up the short peak on the south edge of the lake. We were in hiking boots with zero climbing gear, it was a relatively low key scramble but gave you a stunning view of the lake and peak on the opposite side. Day 3 was a nice 3 mile downhill meandering to Tuolumne Meadows. On the way out you’ll encounter a lot of day hikers heading for the Cathedral Lakes. If you don’t have time for the backpacking portion you can always make it a day hike.
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