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Clouds Rest, Sunrise Lakes, and Sunrise High Sierra Camp
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(This Throwback Thursday blog features the hike up to the summit of Clouds Rest, over to Sunrise Lakes, and a brief visit to Sunrise High Sierra Camp in Yosemite National Park that I hiked in 2017 while working on my Day Hikes of Yosemite National Park Map Guide.)
From the forest along Tioga Road to the bare granite of Clouds Rest, this hike has you experiencing a variety of habitats and vantages, culminating to a panorama in the heart of Yosemite National Park with a special view of Half Dome down the ridge. A side trip to the three lakes that make up the Sunrise Lakes is a delightful bonus (or a lovely trip in and of itself) with their flower meadows, tree-lined lakes, and rugged granite backdrops. For those with some extra steam, a sneak peek into the valley where Sunrise High Sierra Camp sits gives you views of the lovely meadow with a serpentine creek and the serrated-edged Matthes Crest as a dramatic backdrop.
We parked at the trailhead just before you get to Tenaya Lake and hit the trail. A good snowpack had swollen the outlet of the lake and the rocks used to hop over the creek were submerged so we had to take off our shoes and wade through the chilly water.
After drying off our feet, we continued on through the lovely forest. The predominately lodgepole forest has great rock formations, small meadows, pockets of water and, when we hiked it, a preponderance of wildflowers. The first section involves a bit of easy climbing through the slabs of granite and seasonal creeks with occasional views along the way. Forest fires had been burning around the park and the smoke filled the valley below obscuring it some, but it was an otherwise beautiful day.
After a few creek crossings, the trail traded its lazy climbing for something much more strenuous as it began switchbacking up the hillside. The benefit of gaining elevation frequently is more views and this hike was no exception. Under the forest canopy, there were more flowers and in gaps through the trees, the grandeur of Yosemite began to stretch out. While the haze was particularly frustrating, obscuring the views in the morning, it thankfully dissipated quite a bit in the afternoon revealing what we’d missed on the way up.
The forest continued to change as we gained elevation with the granite boulders being a constant throughout. The forest began to really open up as we got on top of the ridge where we came to the junction of the Sunrise Lakes Trail and the Clouds Rest Trail. We stayed right and walked along the ridge, going up and down as we worked our way over to the mountain.
Whenever we would drop down, we’d find lush, wet, flower-filled meadows, then climb back up to drier, more barren aspects of the ridge with some cool looks at Sunrise Mountain. We did this a couple of times including passing a few small ponds, before the trail meandered through a parked out forest which was almost all trees with no shrubbery, and sandy soil. It then took a hard right and we started climbing in earnest again as we gained the ridge and were officially on Clouds Rest.
A sneak peak off trail revealed a preview of the epic views to come. Staying on the trail and a short climb later busted us out onto the naked ridge. The ridge is layered in these smooth-edged, pancake-like layers and we used these sweet steps to work our way up to the summit! You can walk a bit of trail to the east side, but the straight up way is the way to go, giving you sprawling views on both sides.
Of course, it all comes together at the top with a 360 degree panorama with Half Dome immediately to the south, Tenaya Creek far below to the west and the Merced River drainage to the southeast. All around is a sea of granite, forested ridges and the jagged distant summits of the Tuolumne area to the north/northeast. There were only a handful of people at the summit, including a couple of guys who brought guitars and played them. The smoke was better than it was in the morning, but I’d love to see it on a clear day.
After a bite to eat, we headed back down the ridge and over to the junction with the Sunrise Lakes Trail and began traversing around a knob before dropping down to the first of the Sunrise Lakes. Backdropped by a lovely, ridge and lined with trees, we watched Brook Trout swim in the waters before crossing over the outlet and continuing on. The trail doesn’t go by the middle lake, but you can see it from the trail and an easy off-trail walk takes you right to the shores of this one that is dotted by a couple of islands.
We returned to the trail and continued on a short bit, climbing a little in the process and came to the third and largest of the Sunrise Lakes. The trail works its way through lovely meadows as it parallels this lake that is also backdropped by another lovely, granite ridge.
We decided to extend our trip a bit more and worked our way towards the head of the lake where it starts climbing up rather steeply to get up and over a saddle along Sunrise Mountain. The lush forest changes to another dry forest that is only trees and sandy soil once it reaches the saddle. As we descended, grasses and shrubbery began to re-appear.
After a bit of switchbacking down, we eventually found the High Sierra Camp and got the treat of the verdant meadow with an unnamed creek meandering in loopy patterns through it. A great dome backdropped it with Matthes Crest further back slicing into the air with its amazing serrated ridge.
The stop was brief as the day had gotten quite long, so we climbed back up and over the saddle, past the lakes and descended to the outlet of Tenaya Lake where we took off our shoes, enjoyed the cool water on our feet and hopped into our car.
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