TL;DR
Day 3 took us from Upper Cathedral Lake to Lyell Fork in 15.3 moderately flat miles. We took an extended lunch in Tuolumne Meadows where you can also pick up a resupply if needed. We followed Lyell Canyon until we just couldn’t walk anymore. Several established campsites are spread out on the mountain side of the trail. Elevations still below the cutoff for campfires.
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Thoughts
Now facing an even longer day than the one before, we woke up early once again to beat the heat and try and put a dent in the 15 miles we had. What little uphill we had that day was right at the beginning. We passed the turn off for Lower Cathedral Lake, bringing back memories of our past trip, and then descended toward Tuolumne Meadows. The portion through Tuolumne Meadows wasn’t all that eventful. We chose not to cross over to the north side of Hwy 120 . Half my maps say the trail stays south while the other half says the trail crosses over so we decided to just stay south since we planned on getting food anyway. We made good time getting to the shuttle stop and burger place but ended up lingering too long, enjoying the fresh food and somewhat dreaded the next leg.
The meanders parallel to Tioga Rd until passing the Tuolumne Meadows Ranger Station when it starts cutting south to Lyell Canyon. This was the beginning of uncharted territory for us. I hadn’t even heard much of Lyell Canyon until planning this trip but it might be one of my favorite spots in Yosemite now. Its a beautiful wide canyon with a river that snakes back and forth within a grassy meadow. We took a second lunch break next to the water to soak our feet and just enjoy how amazing it all was.
Soaking our feet might have contributed to our demise. We were stiff after that break and really just wanted to be at camp already. As you travel further into the canyon, it begins to narrow and the walls become taller. We were soon in shadow and the temperature began to drop. The last 2 miles of everyday will always feel like the longest, no matter how many miles you’re doing. Feeling exhausted, we decided to just camp at the first sites we could find, falling short of goal that day. The last mile would have required a decent amount of elevation gain that we knew we didn’t have the energy for.
Scattered among the granite we found two campsites that had fire rings. Being one of the few places we could actually have a fire and with the chill setting in, we happily made one, enjoyed our dinner, and quickly passed out. This was only day 3.
Next Day
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