TL;DR
For our second day on the trail, we hiked from Little Yosemite Valley to Upper Cathedral Lake. This was our first full day of hiking and was a rough 12.5mi. You gain elevation quickly as you bypass offshoots to Half Dome and Clouds Rest. Once in the high country, you’ll hike by Sunrise High Sierra Camp, through Cathedral Pass and then descend to Upper Cathedral Lake. Established campsites surround the south and east sides of the lake.
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Thoughts
We woke up early to get a head-start on the elevation gain we had that day. About 3700ft of gain awaited us and started right outside of Little Yosemite Valley. Immediately, you start doing switch backs up to the fork to Half Dome and then to the fork to Clouds Rest. While I’ve done many hikes through Yosemite, I’ve actually never hiked from the Valley up to Tioga Pass. Once I passed the turn off to Half Dome I was in new territory, and to be honest, it wasn’t that exciting. The air was warm and dry as we passed through dead forests and dry brush. The scenery was pretty unchanging and there were long dry gaps between water sources. At mile 6, we hit the most heinous set of switchbacks I’ve ever done. Even after the end of the trip, nothing compared to these switchbacks. They were abnormally steep and, despite being a short section, dragged on forever.
We topped out on Sunrise mountain and collapsed for lunch. This was our high point of the day, close to 9800ft. It wasn’t a great spot for lunch. We were exposed with little shade and all the rocks were covered in sap. We rested up then began our decent that would bring us past Sunrise High Sierra camp. We had been through this section before when we did our hike to Lower Cathedral Lake. Its a beautiful meadow that brings you past Tressider Peak to Cathedral Pass.
My memory of Cathedral Pass was doing me a disservice as I didn’t remember it being that long. We were dragging by the time we made the last descent to Upper Cathedral Lake. Our first full day of hiking was taking its toll. We mosied down to the southern part of the lake looking for an open camping spot. The sun was going down and any hopes of getting a quick dip in the lake were diminishing as we saw most of the established campsites were taken. We started making our way back into the granite slopes looking for a spot flat enough for a tent. We found a few plateaus that would be good enough and set up there. Mosquitoes were out in force due to the warm weather. After getting water, rinsing off our feet, and eating dinner, D and made another trip down to lake to take some photos and enjoy the alpenglow. Cathedral lakes and peak have always been one of our favorite spots in Yosemite and it was a nice treat to come back.
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