Upper Yosemite near Tuolumne Meadows

We passed through Tuolumne Meadows three times on our camping trip to the Eastern Sierras, and each visit offered us something new. When you enter Yosemite National Park, ask the ranger for information on Tuolumne Meadows, or download their pdf map here. If you are doing more substantial hiking, then you will definitely want to purchase a better map before you go. This was a wonderful new experience for us; previously, we had really restricted ourselves to Yosemite Valley. We really enjoyed trying out this new area of the park!

Olmstead Point

This wasn't a hike; rather, it was a stunning place to stop along Tioga Road to see Tenaya Canyon and Half Dome to the south and Tenaya Lake to the north. It was really cool to see Half Dome, such a beloved and familiar sight, from a totally new perspective! We saw this when we were driving out to our camping spot at Oh Ridge on June Lake. We didn't have much time to doing any other hiking, unfortunately!

Lyell Canyon in Tuolumne Meadows

This was an idyllic 10-mile hike, although it could easily be expanded or contracted depending on your group's interests. It's flat, along the banks of the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne River.

Begin across the road from the Dog Lake parking area (shuttle stop #2). There are several creek crossings. Ireland Creek is not bridged, but all the others are. Although the National Park's website says that it is an 8-mile round-trip hike, you can see that this is an error; it's actually 8 miles to get to the waterfall at Kuna Creek. The total round-trip would be 16 miles.

But since it is an in-and-out trail, you can just hike until you feel like you've used about half of your energy reserves; then you hike back the way you came.

The trail was insanely beautiful--it was comparatively lush for my husband and me because we had grown accustomed to the dry climate of the high desert on the eastern side of the Sierras during our camping trip. I loved the wildflowers, and he loved seeing the trout in the clear waters of Lyell Fork. We both enjoyed seeing so many marmots on the trail (they are an animal that looks like a beaver and a squirrel made a baby)--we had never seen a marmot in Yosemite before, but we saw a million of them on this hike!

Soda Springs in Tuolumne Meadows

This 1.5-mile hike (round-trip) can be accessed at the Lembert Dome parking area (shuttle stop #4). See the trail in yellow on the map above. Once you park, walk along the gravel road and pass the locked gate (marked for the Glen Aulin and Soda Springs Trails). Soda Springs—carbonated, cold water bubbling out of the ground—is protected within a log enclosure, designed to keep animals from drinking the water. You will be able to see additional springs outside the structure and you can climb into the enclosure as well.

This hike was short enough that we were able to hit it up on our way back home after leaving Oh Ridge.