Mid Sierra Musings: Tenaya Lake To Curry Village

Dale Matson

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My Run Route

I was watching a YouTube video of folks who went from Tenaya Lake to Cloud’s Rest and Back. It is the fastest route (14miles) to Cloud’s Rest and one of the best vantage points in Yosemite. The video can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5qLVlSzaQ0

I have an older video of the hike I made to Cloud’s Rest from Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley. It is much longer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uprTC3kfsHA

My wife and I tried the route to Cloud’s Rest from Tenaya Lake and both of us were too concerned about crossing the narrow knife-edge approach to get to the wider top in 2006. We turned around defeated only a 100' away.

A year later I investigated taking a Yosemite shuttle bus from Curry Village to Tenaya Lake and running the 17 miles back to Curry Village, which is mostly downhill. On paper it is less labor intensive than hiking to Cloud’s Rest and Back from Happy Isles, which is 4 miles further and 1,000’ higher than Half Dome and back from Happy Isles.

I have even done a more difficult out and back to Cloud’s Rest from Glacier Point. The Panorama trail takes you down to a crossing at Illilouette Creek and then you have to climb back up to join the trail at Nevada Falls. It is a long and exposed climb back up to Glacier Point from the bridge crossing on Illilouette Creek on the return leg.

I talked two of my running friends Terry Nephew and Dan Greer into doing it with me but they opted to take the route that would require them to go over Cloud’s Rest. Both were better runners than me. Terry finished 23^rd overall in his first attempt at the Western States 100 mile endurance run. Dan was sub 40:00 10K runner. I knew my limitations from my experience the year before and took the fork in the trail that would join the John Muir Trail heading south from the Sunrise High Sierra Camp. This way I could avoid the narrow ridge leading to the top of Cloud’s Rest by going around it.

We drove to Yosemite that morning from Fresno and bought our tickets for the first shuttle out of the valley that would take us to our starting point by the southwest shore of Tenaya Lake.

We stayed pretty much together till the split in the trail and I was not sure at what point I would see them again or if I would just meet up with them at my truck.

As it turns out we arrived at Nevada Falls at the same time.

The cream always rises to the top and Terry was out of sight within a mile. Dan and I were together for a time and then he eventually pulled out of sight too. We met at the truck and drove back to Fresno with a brief stop for snacks at the Wawona Store. It was one of those runs that seems like it would be difficult but I believe the trail time proved to be fairly reasonable.