Top Trails Yosemite 2e

Under sparse subalpine shade, your trail quickly passes a tarn and then reaches the Hoover Wilderness boundary. A fisherman’s trail branches to the left, dropping slightly to 9,886-foot-high Blue Lake. Staying on the main route, Blue Lake comes into view a moment later, cupped in steep slopes of ruddy-brown hornfels—a metamorphic rock that doesn’t have layers. Early summer colorful wildflowers emerge from the scant soil covering the rock. As you climb gently to moderately above the north shore of Blue Lake, you cross talus derived from rusty-weathered Dunderberg Peak high to your north.

At Blue Lake’s western headwall, your way climbs steeply, the ascent pausing briefly as the trail rounds an immense talus fan to the verdant banks of Moat Lake’s merrily descending outlet stream. Soon after you step across the creek, a steeply clambering use trail ascends to the unseen lake. Now your trail switchbacks more gradually up a forested hillside to reach a small miner’s cabin in a clearing. After another short climb on steep bluffs, you arrive at the outlet of Cooney Lake (1.2 miles), ▶3 which occupies a low bench in this austere timberline upland. A few small camps are found south of the inlet in wind-tortured knots of whitebark pines, reached by a footpath across the low bench. As you leave the lake, views open to your trip’s barren high point, Burro Pass (a local name; the pass is unnamed on maps). The pass saddles the western horizon; its metamorphosed tuffs look cream-colored against the surrounding, darker, metamorphosed lavas, such as Black Mountain, to your south.

Beyond Cooney Lake you ascend gently west into a rocky-meadowed draw. Just before you step across infant Virginia Creek, a short path leads north to several better camps. The creek is crossed via rocks and logs, requiring a keen sense of balance (or wet feet) during high flows but becoming a series of simple steps by midsummer. Across the creek you find a second rolling bench, which harbors a clutch of small lakelets—the Frog Lakes—named for once-numerous mountain yellow-legged frogs that have disappeared due to disease and nonnative, but tasty, trout. Now you swing south of the meadowy, lowest Frog Lake—often an early-summer mosquito haven—then ascend above some lush alpine turf, step across the river again, and reach the highest lake, where good camps are found among scattered whitebark pines.

From the barren, windswept crest, you make an initial descent south, then momentarily switchback northwest. Colorful wildflowers continue to emerge beneath the boulders, especially where you cross a small trickle. Your trail switchbacks northwest down through a small, stark side canyon to a sloping subalpine bench, with small campsites tucked north of the trail. After a third set of switchbacks, you arrive at a junction on a small bench (4.6 miles), ▶5 just above East Fork Green Creek. Here you have a choice: Head over to Summit Lake (see the Option), or descend a popular route past a half dozen lakes and several ponds en route to the Green Creek Trailhead, the primary route described here.

From the junction, your Green Creek Trail descends northeast past a tarn to an excellent overlook downcanyon to the windswept, largely desolate Hoover Lakes. Beyond, light-colored granitic Kavanaugh Ridge peeks over the massive red shoulder of Dunderberg Peak. Heading north, you descend the bench you’ve been following to the drainage and step across East Fork Green Creek, then traverse across talus above the west shore of upper Hoover Lake before traversing its north shore. At the northeast corner of upper Hoover Lake, you cross its wide, rocky outlet stream (5.45 miles), and in this vicinity you could hike south briefly upslope to exposed camps on small flats above the lake’s east shore. For those seeking more sheltered or larger sites, continue ahead to East Lake and Green Lake.

Your trail makes the first of three outlet creek crossings just past the lake, then makes an easy 0.3-mile descent to where it begins a moderate 500-foot drop in a relatively dense conifer forest, soon reaching a second crossing. In early summer the creek can be swift, and a slip here will send you down its cascading course—take care. Beyond a third crossing, also requiring care, the trail completes another set of tight switchbacks and then levels off, at which point you can branch left, west, toward Green Lake (8.65 miles) ▶8 and its excellent campsites. At an elevation of 8,940 feet, the lake can be on the nippy side; after a refreshing swim, you’ll likely find yourself basking on nearby slabs. However, the lake’s relatively large volume and chilly temperatures make it ideal for a good-size trout population.

From the lake you have to cross Green Lake’s outlet creek, and in early summer it can be raging, so you’ll need to find a log or two to cross it. You’ll then make a brief jaunt to a junction (8.9 miles) ▶9 with a trail climbing steeply 1.6 miles up to West Lake, situated in a basin of barren rock—the shores have few trees and above lies a ring of rocky peaks.

OPTION: Summit Lake

From the junction ▶5 you turn southwest and drop into a seasonally verdant—indeed downright marshy—meadow and cross three broad, shallow, cobble-paved freshets. Just beyond the meadow you step across the faster flowing outlet stream from Summit Lake and begin a short but steep and cobbly ascent, paralleling the outlet stream. Soon the climb moderates, and you traverse dry sedge flats and benches past some good—but small—hemlock-bower campsites. A tent is advisable because the scattered trees offer little wind protection. Nearing the outlet of usually windswept Summit Lake, you level off (0.4 mile from main route). Angling for small brookies is fair. Now begins a long traverse curving west along the north shore to Summit Lake Pass. In midsummer the moist flats you pass through are an astonishing burst of color, with dense fields of arnicas and lupines providing foreground for your photos. At the west end of the lake, you reach the Yosemite National Park boundary, barely rising above the 10,195-foot-high lake (1.05 miles from main route). Standing at the pass, you are gazing down into remote, lush Virginia Canyon. Staring at the skyline, you can readily identify Virginia Peak, a pointed metamorphic summit that rises above and north of the summits of Stanton Peak and Gray Butte. A few more exposed campsites can be found among clusters of whitebark pines near the pass. Sunset views can be quite spectacular from here.

MILESTONES
▶1	0.0	Start at Virginia Lakes Trailhead
▶2	0.2	Left at stock trail junction
▶3	1.2	Cooney Lake
▶4	2.9	Burro Pass
▶5	4.6	Right at Summit Lake junction
▶6	6.1	Gilman Lake inlet
▶7	7.4	East Lake outlet
▶8	8.65	Green Lake spur
▶9	8.9	Right at West Lake junction
▶10	10.9	Reach Green Creek Road
▶11	11.2	Left off Green Creek Road onto trail
▶12	11.8	Finish at Green Creek Trailhead