Clouds Rest
TRAIL USE
Day Hike, Backpack, Horse
LENGTH
12.6 miles; 6–10 hours (over 1–2 days)
VERTICAL FEET
One-way: +2,440', –675'
Round-trip: ±3,115'
DIFFICULTY
TRAIL TYPE
Out-and-Back
FEATURES
Summit
Wildflowers
Great Views
Camping
Steep
Granite Slabs
FACILITIES
Bear Boxes
Restrooms
Shuttle Stop
Though Clouds Rest is higher than Half Dome, it is easier and safer to climb, and it provides far better views of the park than does the more popular, crowded Half Dome. Except for its last 0.1 mile, the Clouds Rest Trail lacks the terrifying exposure found along Half Dome’s shoulder and back side, thereby making it a good trail for acrophobic photographers, especially because the views from just before the final narrow ridge to the summit are already superb and worth the trip. If you’re an avid photographer, you’ll want to start this trek at the crack of dawn to reach this summit before shadows become poor for photography. All hikers should strive to reach this summit by noon or thereabouts if thunderstorms are forecast for the afternoon.
Permits
Overnight visitors require a wilderness permit for the Sunrise Lakes Trailhead, issued by Yosemite National Park. Pick up your permit at the Tuolumne Meadows Wilderness Center, located in the parking lot a short way down Tuolumne Meadows Lodge Road or at another of the Yosemite permit-issuing stations (see “Permits”).
Maps
This trail is covered by the Tom Harrison Tuolumne Meadows map (1:42,240 scale), the National Geographic Trails Illustrated #309 Yosemite SE map (1:40,000 scale), and the USGS 7.5-minute series Tenaya Lake map (1:24,000 scale).
This trail is most popular late July–early September, when you are ensured a snow-free trail and fewer mosquitoes. However, the trail is usually snow-free by early July and the wildflower display peaks soon thereafter, starting to dwindle by late July. Because the mosquitoes are only prevalent along short stretches of this trail—and absent near the summit—you can avoid most of them if you don’t dawdle. As always, the crowds disappear after Labor Day, and if you like hiking in cooler weather, you often can take this trail through mid- and late October.
Finding the Trail
The trail begins on Tioga Road at the Sunrise Lakes Trailhead, a large pullout at a highway bend near Tenaya Lake’s southwest shore. It is located 30.7 miles northeast of Crane Flat and 8.7 miles southwest of the Tuolumne Meadows Campground. There are pit toilets at the trailhead, but the closest flush toilets and drinking water are located at the Tuolumne Meadows Visitor Center (to the east) or at the White Wolf Campground or Crane Flat store (to the west), so fill your water bottles before heading to the trailhead.
Trail Description
From the trailhead parking area, ▶1 take a trail that heads east, passes two small spur trails that depart to the right (south), and soon crosses the usually flowing outlet of Tenaya Lake. Just beyond this crossing you reach a trail junction. The trail left goes northeast along Tenaya Lake’s southeastern shore (0.2 mile). ▶2
You, however, veer right on a trail that parallels Tenaya Creek south for an additional 0.25 mile before turning to the southeast as the trail gently ascends in sparse forest over a little rise and drops to a ford of Mildred Lake’s outlet. Like the other streams over the next 2 miles, it can dry up in late summer or early autumn but requires a sandy wade (or wobbly log balance) in early summer. Beyond the Mildred Lake stream the trail undulates and winds generally south, passing several pocket meadows browsed by mule deer and crossing additional seasonal tributaries, the outlets of the Sunrise Lakes. At 1.4 miles, the trail then begins to climb in earnest, through a thinning cover of lodgepole pine and occasional red fir, western white pine, and mountain hemlock. As the trail rises above Tenaya Canyon, you pass several vantage points from which you can look north to the polished granite walls rising above Tenaya Creek, though you never see Tenaya Lake. To the east the canyon is bounded by Tenaya Peak; in the northwest are the cliffs of Mount Hoffmann and Tuolumne Peak.
Now on switchbacks, you see Tioga Road across the canyon and can even hear vehicles, but these annoyances are infinitesimal compared to the pleasures of polished granite expanses all around. Your route ahead is steep—few Sierra trails ascend 1,000 feet in just 1.1 miles. The trail is also, in places, annoyingly rocky, reflecting the many half-buried boulders and partially submerged slabs with which the trail construction crew had to contend. At least these switchbacks are, for the most part, mercifully shaded, and where they become steepest, requiring a great output of energy, they give back with the beauty of a fine flower display, including lupine, penstemon, paintbrush, larkspur, buttercup, and sunflowers such as aster and senecio. Finally the switchbacks end and the trail levels as it arrives at a junction on a shallow, forested saddle (2.55 miles). ▶3 Here the High Sierra Camps Loop veers left, bound for Sunrise High Sierra Camp (Trail 17). If you were to head 0.45 mile along this trail, you would reach lower Sunrise Lake, sporting campsites, some forested, others in sandy flats, around the lake’s western shore. Though a bit of a detour off your main route, these campsites are better than the only watered campsites along the trail to Clouds Rest.
Assuming you are beelining for the summit, with the initial hard climb behind you, trend right, descending south, bound for Clouds Rest. Your trail switchbacks for a relatively minor descent to a shady, sometimes damp, flat, then climbs to a block-strewn ridge that sprouts dense clumps of chinquapin and aspen. Beyond it the trail descends briefly to a tree-fringed pond—adequate for nearby camping —then wanders south before reaching an often-boggy (and buggy) meadow. You cross three creeklets in rapid succession, your last usually reliable sources of water. After you cross the first creeklet, follow the trail briefly downstream, then veer left to cross the second creeklet before climbing to the third. Beyond that, the trail rapidly eases its gradient and soon reaches a quite flat, sandy shoulder, adequate for a campsite if you carry water from below. At 4.65 miles it reaches the Forsyth Trail junction, ▶4 which approximately marks the northeastern boundary of forest damaged by the 2014 Meadow Fire; downslope the once-dense conifer forest is mostly destroyed.
Sunset view to Half Dome and Yosemite Valley from the summit of Clouds Rest
The Forsyth Trail forks left, headed for the John Muir Trail and Merced River canyon, but you keep right and, for about a mile, ascend the Clouds Rest Trail west to a gravelly crest and then follow it down to a shallow saddle. The final ascent begins here. After a moderate ascent of 0.25 mile, you emerge from the forest cover—what remains of it following the fire—to get your first excellent views of the endless slabs defining Tenaya Canyon and the country west and north of it. After another 0.25 mile along the crest you come to a junction with a horse trail (6.15 miles). ▶5 If you’re riding a horse from Tenaya Lake to Yosemite Valley via the Clouds Rest Trail, you’ll take this left-trending trail after first walking to the summit without your equine companion.
The Clouds Rest foot trail, the right ridge option, now becomes exposed, and you scramble a few feet up to the narrow and potentially dangerous crest. One wishes there were a hand railing in spots. Acrophobes and klutzes should not continue, but luckily you already have spectacular views of Tenaya Canyon, Half Dome, and Yosemite Valley that are nearly identical with those seen from the summit. Spreading below is the expansive 4,500-foot-high face of Clouds Rest—the largest granite face in the park. Those who follow the now steeper, narrow, almost trailless crest 0.1 mile to the summit (6.3 miles) ▶6 are further rewarded with views of the Clark Range and the Merced River canyon west toward Yosemite Valley. Growing on the rocky summit are a few knee-high Jeffrey pines and whitebark pines, plus assorted bushes and wildflowers. Note that if you wish to reach the summit but are unwilling to follow this crest, a considerably longer but less exposed alternative exists. You follow the horse trail west to a junction with the Clouds Rest Trail from Yosemite Valley and proceed up this trail to the summit (head right). It adds 0.9 mile each direction, but for some will be worth the extra distance. When you are finished imbibing the view, return the way you came (12.6 miles). ▶7
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▶1 | 0.0 | Start at Sunrise Lakes Trailhead |
▶2 | 0.2 | Right at junction to Tenaya Lake perimeter trail |
▶3 | 2.55 | Right at Sunrise Lakes–Clouds Rest junction |
▶4 | 4.65 | Right at Forsyth Trail junction |
▶5 | 6.15 | Right at horse trail junction |
▶6 | 6.3 | Clouds Rest summit |
▶7 | 12.6 | Return to Sunrise Lakes Trailhead |
MILESTONES