Expert: Steve Summers - 4/22/2010

Question
Hi Steve,
I have a wilderness reservation to backpack from the Cathedral Peaks and exiting the Valley 5 days later.  From my research so far, I can see that there is a bus that will return us to our car, but it leaves at 8 am every day from the Valley.   We're willing to pay someone to give us a ride to Tuolumne or someone suggested hitch hiking.  Do you have any suggestions.  Thanks.

Answer
Hi Debbie,

Props to you for making the trek. Wish I could convince the wife to do such a trip. If it was me, here's what I would do:

Option 1: Take the 8 AM bus from Yosemite Lodge or Curry Lodge after spending the night at the Camp 4 campground, or one of the other valley campgrounds. This means that you have to make it down into the valley during the afternoon or night before. However, it is possible that Camp 4 (no reservations) or the other campgrounds are full. You might have to reserve a tent cabin in the valley for a night. Tent cabins are usually available in Curry Village. It's not too hard to get over to either the lodge or Curry Village, since the shuttle busses are already running. We've gotten up early and taken the shuttle from Happy Isles to Yosemite Lodge, with time to spare, to take the bus up to Glacier Point. The difficult thing here might be to find an overnight camp spot, if you want to do it this way.  http://www.yosemitepark.com/Activities_GuidedBusTours_TuolumneMeadows.aspx

Option 2: Take YARTS. They leave at 5:00 PM from the valley, which gives you all day to hang around the valley and then ride back to your car. http://www.yarts.com/schedule/2010/120hwy030310.pdf

Hitchhiking or trying to pay someone to drive you up to Tuolumne might work. It could be an adventure, or a disaster. Personally, my first instinct would be to do option 2. Depending on where you live, you could drive to Lee Vining for the night, Mammoth, or Oakhurst.

Good luck! I'm jealous!