• COVID-19 Park and Trail Closures
  • Learn about the Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge
  • Shop
  •  

SoCal Hiker

  • Find a Hiking Trail
    • All Areas
    • Arizona
    • Colorado
    • Los Angeles
    • Orange County
    • Oregon
    • San Francisco Bay
    • Washington
  • Trail Guides
  • Six-Pack of Peaks
    • Colorado Six-Pack of Peaks
      • Bergen Peak
      • Rocky Mountain
      • Birthday Peak
      • Horseshoe Mountain
      • Grays Peak
    • New England Six-Pack of Peaks
    • NorCal Six-Pack of Peaks
      • Mount Umunhum
      • Mount Saint Helena
      • Mount Tamalpais
      • Mount Diablo
      • Mount Sizer
      • Rose Peak
    • Oregon Six-Pack of Peaks
      • Tumalo Mountain
      • Black Butte
      • Black Crater
      • Maiden Peak
      • Mount Bachelor
      • South Sister
    • SoCal Six-Pack of Peaks
      • Mt. Wilson
      • Cucamonga Peak
      • Mt. San Antonio (Mt Baldy)
      • San Bernardino Peak
      • San Jacinto Peak
      • San Gorgonio
  • Backpacking
    • High Sierra Trail
    • John Muir Trail
      • Overview of the John Muir Trail
      • Training
      • Day-by-Day Itinerary
      • Resupply Addresses
      • JMT Discussion Forum
    • Lost Coast Trail
    • North/South Lake Loop
    • Rae Lakes Loop
    • Red Peak Pass Loop
    • Theodore Solomons Trail
    • Trans-Catalina Trail
    • Wonderland Trail
  • Gear
  • Forums
    • Latest Topics
    • Ask a Question
    • Campfire
    • Trails
    • Trail Reports
    • Gear Wisdom
    • Classifieds
  • Login

Thru-Hiking the JMT: Little Yosemite Valley to Sunrise Camp

July 28, 2013 By Jeff H 23 Comments

Half Dome

It’s day two on the John Muir Trail. We woke up feeling creaky but confident. Hiking up Half Dome on day one tested our mettle. Today, we planned to hike 10.4 miles to the Sunrise High Sierra Camp. We ate our super-charged oatmeal breakfast and broke camp. As we were getting ready to leave, we saw a bear wandering near the western edge of the camp.

Black bears are common along the JMT, especially in the more popular areas such as Little Yosemite Valley. That’s one of the reasons they have bear lockers for your food in some places, and require an approved bear-proof canister for food storage everywhere else.

Bear in Little Yosemite Valley

This bear was getting ready to wander into the campground to snag some unsuspecting camper’s breakfast or an open bear box — both reasons to be vigilant with your food in the mountains.  Black bears won’t chase you down unless they or their young are threatened. We chose to keep a safe distance and admire the bear from afar.

img
John Muir Trail Day 2
Distance: 6.8 miles
Cumulative Distance: 18.4 miles
Total Ascent: 3,971 ft
Cumulative Ascent: 8,971 ft
Harrison Map Sheet 13
GPX file (official JMT)
GPX file (Clouds Rest)
We had originally hoped to spend last night at a camp site about a half mile beyond the junction to Half Dome, which would’ve put us 2.8 miles further up the JMT. Unfortunately our permit was for “Happy Isles to Little Yosemite Valley” and the ranger made it clear that we were not to camp beyond that on the first night. Our first 2.3 miles on day two we repeated a portion of the trail we hiked up yesterday en route to Half Dome.  From that junction, we headed east near to the next junction, where the trail parallels the north side of Sunrise Creek.

There is also a junction here with a trail to Clouds Rest. 

Hari and Jeffrey — armed with the energy of youth — were well ahead of us.  Joan and I hiked at our normal slow-and-steady pace. Joan suspected we were too far from Sunrise Creek, and questioned my navigation skills. I reassured her that we were on the correct trail, and we kept hiking onward (and upward).

Day 2 on the JMT

The climb was suspiciously relentless. We weren’t supposed to be gaining this much elevation, were we? Soon, I was second-guessing myself. We consulted with some hikers coming down the trail toward us. “Hi! Where ya’ coming from?” is the typical refrain when passing other hikers on the trail. “Sunrise” they replied. I took this to confirm that we were in fact headed in the right direction, since we were headed towards Sunrise High Sierra Camp.

We continued on, hiking even higher.

There’s a peculiar truth about the psychology of climbing thousands of feet of elevation gain. You don’t want that climbing to be for nothing. You sincerely want to be right, so you haven’t “wasted” that effort, only to have to retrace your steps and hike even further than you had planned. That’s where I was at, and the higher we hiked, the more committed I had become.

Name this dome...

Another group of hikers came down the trail toward us. “Where ya hiking from?” “Oh, we’re coming down from Clouds Rest.”

Ugh. Not what I had wanted to hear. 

I ate humble pie and we revisited our map to come up with Plan B. It turns out, we were well on our way to Clouds Rest and miles up the wrong trail. We decided to continue on and past Sunrise Lakes (obviously the “Sunrise” the earlier hikers had referred to). From there a trail looped down to Sunrise High Sierra Camp. We wouldn’t make it today, but we wouldn’t be too far off, either.

img
Jeff Eats Humble Pie
JMT-JeffThe John Muir Trail is very well marked, but you still need to know how to navigate… and listen to your girlfriend! Although Joan will be the first to admit she is generally “directionally challenged,” she was 100% right on this one. I chose the wrong trail, then stubbornly insisted on following it. There’s a lesson in there…

Always Look at the Bright Side of Life

The benefit of our “alternative” route is that we got to summit not only Half Dome, yesterday, but Clouds Rest today. Clouds Rest has magnificent views of Half Dome, Yosemite Valley, and 360 degrees of pure wilderness beauty. And although Jeffrey slack-packed up here yesterday afternoon, we could boast that we summited with our full backpacks. Hah!

Yosemite Valley from Cloud's Rest

Impromptu off-trail camp

Impromptu off-trail camp

I discovered that I once again had cell reception on Clouds Rest (thank you AT&T) and left a message for Jeffrey and Hari explaining that we would meet them at Tuolumne Meadows tomorrow.

After Clouds Rest, we continued until on past an tiny unnamed creek and setup an impromptu and unauthorized camp for the night off trail. This is strictly against the rules in Yosemite, but we weren’t prepared to hike through the darkness. We were very careful to choose a spot where we would leave no trace. We setup camp for the night in a little place I like to call The Middle of Somewhere, because we knew where we were, but weren’t where we planned to be.

Little Yosemite Valley to Clouds Rest and the Middle of Somewhere

This map details our journey from Little Yosemite Valley to Cloud’s Rest and on to our impromptu off-trail camp.

© OpenStreetMap contributors
Download file: JMT-Day-2.gpx

Jeffrey and Hari managed to stay on the JMT, but decided to power on past Sunrise (too many mosquitos) and camped at the Cathedral Lakes (also too many mosquitos, but not enough energy or time to continue further). Jeffrey captured some great shots of the lake at the golden hour.

Cathedral Lake

This also set them up for an easy 5 mile hike downhill hike to Tuolumne Meadows the next day.

Little Yosemite Valley to Cathedral Lakes

This is the “correct” route along the JMT which Jeffrey and Hari followed.

© OpenStreetMap contributors
Download file: JMT-LYV-to-Cathedral-Lakes.gpx

JMT Day 2 Photo Gallery

Click on any photo to view a larger version. You can also leave comments on any photo.

Bear in Little Yosemite Valley
17.5 miles to Tuolumne Meadows

Day 2 on the JMT
Name this dome…
An odd bird


Oops. We didn’t mean to hike here.
Cloud’s Rest
Yosemite Valley from Cloud’s Rest

Jeff atop Cloud’s Rest
Impromptu off-trail camp
Wildflowers in bloom

Cathedral Lake

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Don’t miss a single day in our JMT series! Subscribe now and get email updates for each post on SoCal Hiker.

Got a question about the JMT? Something you’d like more info on? Post a question in the JMT forum!

Tomorrow, we head to Tuolumne Meadows for our first resupply.

Originally hiked on July 28, 2010. 

Filed Under: JMT Resources, Trail Guides Tagged With: Backpacking, JMT, John Muir Trail, National Park, peakbagging, wilderness, Yosemite

Like what you found here at SoCal Hiker? This site is a labor of love. Share your support for the site and help us development of new trail guides and expanded coverage -- make your next outdoor equipment purchase through our advertisers.

You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter and follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Jeff H

About Jeff H

I'm an avid hiker and backpacker. My wife Joan and I are on the trails every weekend. I started SoCal Hiker to share my passion for outdoor adventure.

Comments

  1. Luisa says

    July 28, 2013 at 9:19 pm

    Ooh, a Sooty Grouse! [Blue Grouse, we called them back in the day.] Here’s a link to some Flickr photos of Sooty Grouse + Yosemite: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Sooty+Grouse+yosemite

    I am loving this series SO MUCH.

    Reply
    • Jeff HJeff Hester says

      July 29, 2013 at 10:14 pm

      Thank you, Luisa! When we saw this bird, I had no idea what it was. It looked a bit like a pheasant, only larger. I’ve only seen a grouse a couple of times. Are they rare?

      Reply
  2. Minerva says

    July 29, 2013 at 1:04 pm

    Gorgeous pictures and that’s always a worry of mine when I’m out on a trail (on the rare occasion I do get out to hike somewhere) that I’m too stubborn to realize I’m going the wrong way. Sounds like you still got some neat experiences despite the misdirection!

    Reply
    • Jeff HJeff Hester says

      July 29, 2013 at 10:16 pm

      Thanks, Minerva! The trouble with shooting photos on a trip like this is deciding which ones to share — the scenery was so beautiful, it’s difficult to choose!

      Reply
  3. andrew goop says

    July 30, 2013 at 1:27 am

    Its been on my To do list a long time. Hopefully be for I retire

    Reply
  4. Michael Byrd says

    July 30, 2013 at 8:08 am

    This is the perfect example of being adaptable on the trail and making the best of the situation. It also helps being in such a beautiful place. Love the photos! If I were prepared, I’d love getting lost on the JMT.

    Reply
    • Jeff HJeff Hester says

      July 30, 2013 at 12:14 pm

      So true, Michael. You need to be flexible and enjoy the journey.

      And to be honest, at the time, I was a little uptight about not being on “THE” JMT for a few miles. I knew that I wanted to write-up a day-by-day guide to the trail, and now I wasn’t actually ON the trail.

      The reality is, it’s not the trail, but the journey. It’s not the route, but the intent.

      The actual route of the JMT has been realigned in different places over the years. So what is “THE” JMT?

      As far as I’m concerned, we did hike the JMT — and then some. You have to hike your own hike.

      Reply
  5. Tammy McDermott says

    September 16, 2015 at 7:20 pm

    hey are you both from san clemente? my hometown…love your page looking to do the jmt by myself in 2016 and your page is awesome..sounds like it is tough getting a permit these days..i live in steamboat springs now but am visiting san clemente on sunday and would love to chat..if possible…thanks for all your info

    Reply
  6. Jeff HJeff Hester says

    September 16, 2015 at 7:27 pm

    Hi Tammy! We used to live in San Clemente but moved to Los Angeles three years ago. I’m happy to answer any questions I can about the JMT though. Feel free to post in our discussion forum.

    Reply
  7. Carol says

    October 6, 2015 at 9:22 pm

    Great posts!
    I’ve heard varying degrees of reports on the difficulty of the Cloud’s Rest route you took. It does seem like the best route to do if you want the most experiences. How does it compare to the Mist Trail or the JMT up from the valley?

    Reply
  8. Agnus says

    October 24, 2015 at 2:26 pm

    How did you track the GPS info? Thought of using my running watch but the amount of recharging seems to be a draw back.

    Reply
  9. Jeff HJeff Hester says

    October 26, 2015 at 12:05 pm

    Agnus, on the JMT I tracked our route using a Garmin hand-held GPS. I carried spare batteries and included still more batteries in my resupplies. Sadly, when I got to the end I found I had only a few days recorded. It could only store a certain number of points, and then the “oldest” points got pushed off the stack. Bummer.

    So I had to carefully go back and retrace my route to create these tracks (other than for the last few days).

    This year I’ve been hiking the Theodore Solomons Trail — even longer than the JMT — and using my iPhone and GaiaGPS for all tracking. A much better solution all around. I download the maps I need for offline use, and put my phone into Airplane mode (GPS tracking still works). I use my phone for all my photos as well as navigation checks, and generally have plenty of charge left at the end of the day. At night, I plug it into an external battery and recharge it to 100% for the next day.

    I’m carrying a higher capacity battery that allows up to six full recharges. That’s been working well for the Solomons Trail since I’ve been section hiking it, but if I had a longer segment (>5 days) I would bring a solar charger to refresh the battery.

    If you have more questions, be sure to ask in the forums: http://socalhiker.net//community/

    Reply
  10. Cindy says

    November 8, 2015 at 7:13 am

    Planning and Hoping??? to get a permit for the JMT next summer 2016, late August. How many hours did it take you to hike Half Dome from Little Yosemite camping area? Did it take you the 10-12 hours the park website says?

    Reply
  11. Steve says

    November 22, 2015 at 5:38 pm

    Where would choose to camp the day you did half dome? So to not re-hike 2.3 miles.What would you do with the packs?. Thanks. Great reference.

    Reply
  12. Jeff HJeff Hester says

    November 22, 2015 at 7:50 pm

    @Steve – there is a campground at Sunrise Creek, just past the junction with the trail to Cloud’s Rest. We setup our tents and stowed our packs. Be sure to remove all food and smelly stuff and put it in your bear canister.

    Reply
  13. Bryan says

    November 23, 2015 at 10:48 am

    Hey Jeff, along the lines of what Steve was asking, can you explain a little bit further why you weren’t able to camp at the spot you wanted? You mentioned that your permit was only for a certain section, are all permits like this, where you can only go to a certain point each day? I’d like to do half dome but not if we have to backtrack almost 3 miles.

    Reply
    • Jeff HJeff Hester says

      November 23, 2015 at 5:52 pm

      Sure Bryan. When you get your permit, your not only specify your trailhead, but also your first night’s camp. In our case, we got the trailhead we wanted (Happy Isles) but not the campsite we wanted (we got Little Yosemite Valley).

      Sometimes you have to be happy with what you get, especially when it comes to JMT permits! 🙂

      Reply
  14. Marc says

    July 30, 2016 at 2:23 am

    I am fairly certain that with a Yosemite backcountry permit you can camp anywhere in the wilderness after the first night, excluding Little Yosemite and maybe a couple of other places, so your 2nd campsite between Cloud’s Rest and Sunrise TH was okay.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Newsletter

Sign up to get your weekly trail recommendation and the latest updates from SoCal Hiker.

JMT Planning

  • Overview of the JMT
  • JMT Maps, Guidebooks & Software
  • Our JMT Itinerary
  • Resupply Addresses
  • JMT Discussion Forum

Day-by-Day on the JMT

  • Driving to Lone Pine
  • Shuttle from Lone Pine to Yosemite
  • DAY 1: Happy Isles to Little Yosemite Valley (plus Half Dome)
  • DAY 2: Little Yosemite Valley to Sunrise Camp
  • DAY 3: Tuolumne Meadows Resupply
  • DAY 4: Tuolumne to Upper Lyell Canyon
  • DAY 5: Lyell Canyon to Thousand Island Lake
  • DAY 6: Thousand Island Lake to Reds Meadow
  • DAY 7: Devil’s Postpile to Deer Creek
  • DAY 8: Deer Creek to Tully Hole
  • DAY 9: Tully Hole to VVR
  • DAY 10: Zero DAY at VVR
  • DAY 11: Mono Creek to Rosemarie Meadow
  • DAY 12: Rosemarie Meadow to Muir Trail Ranch
  • DAY 13: Muir Trail Ranch to McClure Meadow
  • DAY 14: Over Muir Pass to Helen Lake
  • DAY 15: Le Conte Canyon to Palisade Creek
  • DAY 16: The Golden Staircase and Mather Pass
  • DAY 17: Over Pinchot Pass to Woods Creek
  • DAY 18: Woods Creek to Rae Lakes
  • DAY 19: Rae Lakes, Glen Pass to Vidette Meadow
  • DAY 20: Forester Pass to Wright Creek
  • DAY 21: Wright Creek to Guitar Lake
  • DAY 22: To Mt Whitney and Whitney Portal

Sponsors

Sponsor SoCalHiker and see your banner here

Buy MILE...MILE & A HALF and watch now!

Latest Posts

  • Hiking Belknap Crater in the Mountain Washington Wilderness October 20, 2022
  • Hiking to the Simpson Reef Overlook on the Oregon Coast Trail August 25, 2022
  • Join Team SoCalHiker at the Climb for Heroes August 23, 2022
  • Hiking the Welch-Dickey Loop in the White Mountain National Forest August 18, 2022
  • Hiking Turtlehead Peak from Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area July 15, 2022

Recent Forum Topics

  • How to deal with accidents while hiking in the winter?
  • Warm Tips for your hiking in winter
  • Some tips for hiking.
  • Keep your body warm in the winter hiking
  • The benefits of hiking, more than you can imagine!

The Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge Series

Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge SeriesThe Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge Series gives you an opportunity to explore your world while supporting a great cause. There are eleven challenges around the country. Hike or run them at your own schedule.

Flex your adventure muscles!

Learn more here.

 

Search

Tags

3-6 miles 6-8 miles 8-10 miles 11+ miles Arizona Backpacking coastal dog-friendly easy family-friendly High Sierra Trail hiking Hiking The John Muir Trail hipster inspiration JMT John Muir John Muir Trail Kings Canyon National Park LA County moderate Mount Rainier National Park Muir Monday National Park Orange County Oregon out of bounds Pacific Crest Trail peak peakbagging quote scenic Sequoia National Park Sierra Nevada Six-Pack of Peaks State Park strenuous Thru-hiking Utah vista Washington waterfall wilderness Wonderland Trail Yosemite

Copyright © 2023 SoCalHiker.net · Metro Theme on Genesis Framework with WPEngine Hosting · Contact SoCal Hiker · Sitemap · Privacy Policy

 

Loading Comments...