06/10/2022
Short Hikes in Yosemite | Best Day Hikes in Yosemite
Yosemite National Park is one of the most visited national parks in the world and is best known for its waterfalls, but there are a number of short hikes in Yosemite that offer stunning views. This blog takes you on a tour around the best day hikes in Yosemite.
With so many trails to choose from, it can be difficult to pick the perfect one. I will be listing my favorite Yosemite trails and going into detail about why they are some of the best in the park.
For those coming to Yosemite for the very first time, planning your trip can be very difficult. There is so much to see and so much to do.
How can you possibly choose between all of the amazing destinations?
Yosemite has so much to offer, from its famous sights to its rivers, creeks, mountains, and boulders.
It might be their last opportunity to see the park, depending on how long they plan to stay, so it can be stressful.
You don't want to miss it since it might be the only opportunity you have to see something.
I currently have a book here called 45 Yosemite must-do hikes. It has more than 420 pages. This kind of thing might or might not be useful to you. However, in my opinion, this is the best manual I have ever seen.
I like it a lot, but again, for planning a single trip to Yosemite.
Even if it's three or four or five days long, something like this can just add to that overwhelming feeling of I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know where to go, I'm going to miss something no matter what I do.
So that is what I'm here to help you with today. And I think I've got a pretty good idea of what to expect on my next trip.
I grasp now what I would do if I had to start all over and I only had a certain number of days
I'm going to tell you what I would do if I could only visit Yosemite for one, two, three, four, or five days.
My Hike Criteria
Now to help you make sure that you're not wasting your time by reading this book, I do want to kind of go over my thought process very briefly before I start telling you what I would do.
First of all, I break down a Yosemite visit into four different kinds of activities.
Tourism
Being a tourist would be one of them. And while I don't want to come off as judgmental, the first two or three times I went to Yosemite, I was clearly in tourist mode.
In essence, a tourist is someone who only wants to enter the park, view the major attractions, take some photos, and leave.
Camping
Camping is something else I'm not going to do since, for one thing, I haven't done it much in Yosemite, only going out three or four nights.
However, I simply don't have a lot of knowledge about camping, lodging, and other similar topics. There isn't much I can do for you if you're searching for advice on how to organize your trip in terms of overnight stays.
Backpack
This site is not about backpacking through Yosemite, if that is what you're looking to do. Because when you backpack, you frequently visit locations that are extremely different from those you would visit if you were on a series of day walks and then heading back to the valley or a hotel.
These are all the kinds of activities that you should be able to perform in a single day, but I'm picturing extremely full days of trekking.
When I said that planning your activities in Yosemite could be difficult, I wasn't joking. There is a tremendous amount to see and do. If I could only spend one day in Yosemite, that is.
What would be the most bang for your buck as far as some of the bucket list items?
Half domes, El Cap, and Yosemite Falls are the main draws for tourists to Yosemite, thus they come there to see such things. You definitely don't want to miss out on some things.
I, therefore, made an effort to plan my hike so that I could view several of those important landmarks.
Iconic Pieces
However, I didn't want the hike to be solely focused on getting there. Yosemite has some amazing destination treks, but I tried to reserve some of the longer ones for the end of multi-day trips because they really kind of save their payoff until that time.
You probably don't want to spend most of your day hiking through a forest to reach the end so you can view one thing if you're just going to be in Yosemite for one or two days.
Great Hikes
So, in my early days, I made an effort to see all the important sights, but I also wanted to make sure that the hike would be really worthwhile.
Easy Access
The next thing I thought about was how challenging it would be to navigate the trail and arrive at it.
Where You're Going: A permit is necessary for some activities in Yosemite since some portions of the park are restricted. Lotteries are commonly used to allocate these permissions.
I made an effort to choose hikes that were essentially certain. You can complete this hike if you visit Yosemite.
Winter Season Considerations
In Yosemite, there are essentially three main roads that lead to hiking trails. Tioga is one of them.
There are many fantastic walks that start from Tioga, and it passes the road that you can see high up here in the green. It is on the north side of the valley.
They drop you down to the top of a feature on the north side of the valley, but they are often very long and difficult to navigate.
Glacier Point Road, which is the green one nearby, is the opposite road. With numerous excellent trailheads on the south side of the valley, this is the same tale as Tioga.
But the most important thing to keep in mind about both of these routes is that they close for the season as soon as the snow starts to fall.
And the season may last for nearly six months. Therefore, be sure to check the Yosemite website for the weather at the time of your planned visit.
Make sure you are there because your options will only be the valley hikes if those roads are closed.
which make up a 20-mile loop in total, several of which are frequently closed because of ice and snow, rockfall, and other natural disasters.
Therefore, if you want to access the trails at the top or well up, there is sort of a prime season for visiting Yosemite.
My final consideration for the winter season
My final consideration was whether or not there was going to be overcrowding on the trails. Now, for some of you that are used to hiking way out in the backcountry, pretty much
All of these trails may feel overcrowded to you.
But there are some places where the roads actually take you almost all the way to the feature.
Those are typically going to be very clogged with people because you're going to get everybody from the local campers to the drive-in tourists to the hikers, even some backpackers hitting certain areas.
Yosemite is kind of like Disneyland for hikers, but it comes with the problems of Disneyland as well.
I tried to pick hikes that were pretty much guaranteed to be sure of things. If you come to Yosemite, you will be able to do this hike.
If you only had one day in Yosemite
By the way, I'm defining a day as dark to dark. I am talking about a full day where you
Yosemite either wakes up in Yosemite or you get there super early and you either go to sleep in Yosemite or you don't leave until it is well past dark.
If you only have one day in the park and you want to see all the cool stuff, I wouldn't expect much hiking to be done.
Valley Drive
The valley drives and picks up a bunch of little short hikes to some really amazing spots along the way.
Now, no matter how you enter Yosemite Valley, you end up in a generally
It is a counter-clockwise loop that takes you all the way up to the Happy Isles, which is where some of the major hikes begin, and then back down around again and back out of the valley.
Bridalveil Falls
If you do that drive, one of the first things you come to is bridal veil falls, and this is a
The beautiful little trail is an incredible iconic waterfall This is the waterfall that you
See those incredible tunnel view photos where you can practically walk right up under it?
That is a good quick little hike again. It will often be very crowded, but it gets you right back to your car, right back on the road, and you can drive to your next destination.
Lower Yosemite Falls
Personally, I would probably go ahead and go up around the loop and start heading
Back then I would go for the lower Yosemite Falls hike. This is a gentle, meandering path that will be very crowded.
But it's got some beautiful creek views, and when you end up on the Yosemite Falls bridge and you look up, you can actually see Lower Falls, which is the third section of Yosemite Falls.
Tunnel View
Once you're done with this short hike, you can hop right back in your car and head off somewhere else. Once I've made that loop, you could probably do that in maybe two or three hours
If you're stopping off to see the waterfalls, I would then drive to the other end and continue up Glacier Point Road.
This is going to take you to a tunnel view, so you can again park the car, get out, walk a few feet, snap the amazing tourist picture, get back in the car and keep going.
Taft Point
After driving the majority of the glacier point road, you will arrive at a fantastic trail.
takes you to the Taft point After a short hike, you will find yourself on top of Yosemite Valley, looking down.
It's an incredible experience, and it's one of the shortest hikes to one of Yosemite's best payoffs.
Glacier Point
After that, if you want to take the glacier point road the rest of the way to the glacier point itself, you will get some amazing views of half dome.
When you get to the glacier point itself, you can stand in line for a bunch more of the major tourist pictures.
You can pick up some food in the general store that will get you going for the rest of the trip back. For me, that would be an incredible one day.
You're going to get to see all of the major features of Yosemite from the valley. You're going to get to see all of them from the top.
You will see the bridal Veil. You'll see Yosemite Falls, you'll see Vernal Nevada.
Basically, with this itinerary, you aren't going to miss any of the iconic Yosemite features, and it's going to be a long day, but you can do it.
If you only had Two days in Yosemite
In other words, you've got one whole day. You spend the night pretty close to the valley or even in the valley, and then you've got the entire next day as well.
How would I change things?
Basically, I would still do a lot of the stuff that I did on the first day, especially as far as the valley drive.
El Capitan Base
What do I personally change?
While I was doing the valley drive, I would do one more stop on the way back out of the park and you can actually hike to the base of El Capitan. I found this to be quite amazing.
It is amazing to stand underneath a 3000-foot high piece of granite and literally be able to put your hands on the base of the rock and look up.
It's only going to take about an hour, maybe an hour and a half if you doddle like I usually do. It is a worthwhile addition to the valley loop hikes.
Sentinel Dome/Taft Point
The difference would be that I would spend a lot more time in the valley. And I would make the upper part of the valley my second day but instead of going to that point and glacier point.
I would do a big loop that takes you not only to the Taft point but to the sentinel dome. This is a great loop hike and it is going to take a bit longer.
But the amazing thing is that when you get to the top of the sentinel dome you get to see half the dome like you would from a glacier point, only without the crowds.
So not only do you get to climb up on top of something high but you get to go around another big loop and you end up at a Taft point.
And you get to have that experience as well. For many people, that could be a full day right there.
However, if you get done with the loop and you still want to see some more, There is no reason not to run down to the glacier point, take all those pictures.
I'll go get some ice cream for you. That's going to be a pretty solid second day, especially since you spent the first day really exploring the valley.
And the second day really exploring the top, not only will you see all of the things you would have seen on the first day but you're really going to get to experience them in a fuller way.
If you had three full days to spend in Yosemite
Well, this is where I would add the most popular hike in the entire park. Do the valley loop with all the little hikes, come up top, and do the Taft and sentinel dome loop.
Vernal Falls/Nevada Falls (Mist Trail/John Muir Trail)
Then, on day three, you'll return to the valley, and drive all the way up to the far east end. And then do the vernal falls Nevada falls john Muir trail loop, which is an incredible hike and the most popular hike in Yosemite National Park.
The reason I didn't include it on day one or day two is that, despite being an incredibly popular hike.
Beautiful hike with two incredible waterfalls. The trouble is you miss almost all of the iconic features of Yosemite if this is the only hike you do.
This trail does not feature El Capitan. It does not feature Half Dome. It does not feature Yosemite Falls. It's really a different part of Yosemite.
If you notice, the valley here kind of goes up and then turns south and wraps around over here, and it's this turn that you see when you're on top of glacier point.
It's in this turn that this hike that I'm talking about is, and again, it's an incredible hike.
Personally, I thought it was more important to see the big sites and to get up really high and see the valley from the top for someone who was only going to be in the park for a limited time.
Then, it was to just go on one of the prettier hikes that miss a lot of those things.
Alternatives for Advanced Hikers
Before I go forward to what I would do on days four and five. I do want to briefly mention two incredible hikes that you might consider if you are a little bit more advanced a hiker.
Climbing Half Dome
The first is the half dome hike. You might be surprised to discover that I do not recommend trying to climb half dome if you have a limited amount of time in the park.
Number one, it's on a very aggressive permit system. They only allow 300 people a day to get up to the top of the half dome.
Now to some of you, that might sound like an amazingly large number and that's another reason I'm not super fond of this hike.
You're going to be standing in line literally with hundreds of people trying to get up to the top of half dome.
But the other trouble is the permit system is a lottery and if you don't plan very carefully, you can ruin your trip by thinking you're going to Yosemite and climbing the half dome.
The other reason I don't typically recommend this hike for someone with a limited amount of time is that it is a very long hike.
There's no quick way to climb the half dome. In fact, most people make it a two-day backpacking trip.
If you don't, most people are looking at sunup to sundown hike, which means you're going to be carrying a lot of food, a lot of water and
You are not going to get to spend a whole lot of time up on top of a half dome.
The other thing I don't like about this hike is that when you're on top of half dome, guess what you can't see.
You have no good views of the half dome from the top of the half dome.
Another thing I don't like about this hike is that the best part of it is the mist trail to the John Muir trail hike up Vernal and Nevada Falls, so once you've passed the falls you're out of the woods.
It's basically just walking through the forest until you begin your ascent of the subdue.
then a half dome as far as the views go, strangely enough, you actually see a lot more on other hikes.
So if standing on top of half dome and getting that awesome hero shot out on the visor is a bucket list item for you, then by all means go for it.
I'm not including that hike in this particular list because I think it's a little bit more advanced and it's the sort of thing that I would say most people should just plan on saving for another trip.
Four Mile Loop to Mist/JMT Loop
Another incredible hike and I mean incredible in the sense that if this was my last dying wish and I only got to do one hike in Yosemite for the rest of my life. It would be a string of trails that make for a pretty amazing loop.
You start by going up the four-mile trail, which isn't often talked about but is actually one of the best payoff trails in Yosemite because you literally get to see the valley from the ground all the way to the top.
But then you keep going down the panorama trail right over the top of Illienet Falls.
You take that all the way down to the top of Nevada Falls and then you have a choice of either taking the John Muir trail or the mist trail back down to happy isles.
There you have another three-mile road walk to get back to your car, but that is an
This is an advanced hike and not the sort of thing that I would typically just tell someone new to Yosemite to do.
But if you are a pretty solid hiker, check out the stats on that hike and maybe consider swapping it for the missed trail john Muir trail loop.
Because you're going to get just about all of that anyway and you're going to get to see some amazing other sites.
If You Only Had Four Days In Yosemite
All right, so let's say that you have already knocked out all of the hikes that I recommended for the first full three days in Yosemite.
What's next?
Well, at this point, I would say that you have definitely given full coverage and due diligence to all of the major iconic valley features of Yosemite.
Cloud's Rest
Now as far as I'm concerned, it's time to go do something a little different and for day four, hands down, no question, what I would recommend is clouds rest.
The clouds rest hike is considered somewhat challenging, but it's not super far. It's probably going to kill the day, but the payoff on this hike is in.
In my opinion, the greatest thing that Yosemite has to offer, even ignoring everything you're going to see on the way when you get to that spine and you walk up these boulders with a two or three-thousand-foot drop on either side of you.
And when you reach the summit and look back down Yosemite Valley, you can see half of the dome, the sentinel dome in the north dome, and El Cap. It's an incredible experience.
I don't think there is a better view in Yosemite national park than that from the top of Cloud's Rest.
It's a little off the beaten path, but the shots you're going to get from there and the experience of climbing that spine, to me, that's worth the full day.
If You Had Five days In Yosemite
You've seen all of the iconic features from both the bottom of the valley and the top of the valley, and you've seen the entire valley from clouds to rest.
What could you possibly do to finish off five days?
What I would recommend at this point is getting away from the valley.
What is doing something on the eastern side of the park?
Many people don't realize how big Yosemite is. There are entire mountain ranges.
Yosemite National Park includes many people that many people have never even heard of, and going east really takes you.
Number one along a beautiful road that shows you some major features of the park that you don't see from the valley.
In fact, you can drive all the way to the other end of 395 in Nevada and you can see Mono Lake on the way. I would recommend climbing either Mount Hoffman or Mount Dana.
These are two very different hikes
Mt. Hoffman
Mt. Dana
Mt. Hoffman
Hoffman starts off as more of a typical hike through the woods; it's steep and when you get through the tree line you're climbing on some kind of bouldery rocks.
But it's got a really fun summit. And it allows you to look over to the other side of the mountain range and see a bunch of lakes. You get to see half the dome from even a higher vantage point.
Mt. Dana
If you want something that's a little bit more like a mountain climbing experience, Mount Dana is great. It's the second highest mountain in the park and it starts right on the road.
It's not a terribly challenging hike, but it does take you above 13,000 feet. So if you have never experienced that kind of altitude, it can be kind of fun, challenging, and possibly pain-inducing.
But the top of Mount Dane is amazing. You can look down over Mono Lake. It's a great hike.
Pescado tacos
If you get to the other end of Tioga Pass, there's a gas station down there that sells unbelievable fish tacos.
Final Words
So those are my recommendations for what I would do if I had one, two, three, four, or five full days in Yosemite National Park. I hope this blog has helped you out. If you would mind giving it a like.
