Permits

Hoover Wilderness

Yosemite

Mapology

MAP NOTE
Those squares breaking the USGS maps up into grids are the Universal Transverse Mercator / Military Grid Reference System, otherwise commonly known as UTM.

What's important for our general reference purpose is that each side of a square is 1000 meters, or a Kilometer.

From my point of view that is 1093.6 yards or .62 of a mile.

Diagonal: 1414.22 meters, if my trig is correct.

That converts the diagonal distance into 4,639.8 feet or .88 of a mile.

Location

Main Features

THIS MAP IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Also See: Tuolumne Meadows 15 minute Hiking Map

The routes and their links with the detailed maps have just been laid out. The trails North and South on the John Muir Trail are on the way.

After I finish rewriting the completed draft guide from Meeks Bay to Tuolumne Meadows.

Stay Tuned.

Map Problems

Delany Creek now crosses the trail South of the Young Lakes Junction, not to its North as depicted above.

The road in the car campground behind the Store and Post Office has been considerably modified from this 1976 map above, and is even different from how it is depicted on the 1994 Vogelsang map as well.

The best and most recent maps of the Tuolumne Meadows campground and general facilities are reproduced on the Tuolumne Meadows Backpacker's Resupply Page. Scroll down to see a recent facilities map.

Hiking Notes

Coming South on the Tahoe to Yosemite Trail I hike the unmaintained trail up from Glen Aulin to the Bridge above Tuolumne Falls. Nifty route.

South from the Bridge at Parsons Cabin I cut Left across Tuolumne Meadow to the Post Office. I don't want to hike to the Visitor Center. I want to hike to the Post Office (resupply), Store (beer) and Grill (burger-fries).

Hiking South from Tuolumne towards Yosemite Valley on the backwards John Muir Trail I follow the campground to the end, then cut up to the trail. I am generally leaving after an early breakfast at the Grill...

Hiking North on the Pacific Crest Trail I hike straight into Tuolumne Meadows, rather than the PCT's crazy route bending around and over to Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, then down to the Lembert Dome parking lot. WTF is up with that? I hike North onto the Tuolumne Meadows Campground road, then I cut up the hill to stop and drop my gear off at the Backpackers Camp before heading down to the Post Office, Store and Grill.

Mapping, Mileage,
and
National Forest Information

Hoover Wilderness
This map depicts two of the four main ways backpackers find their way over the Sierra Crest into the North Yosemite Backcountry from Hoover Wilderness.

Those would be the Green Creek and Virginia Lakes Trailheads.

In the upper-Left hand corner of the map (Northwest edge) we see the trail over to the top of Kerrick Canyon and Twin Lakes.

Click that label to be taken to the Bensen Lake to Virginia Canyon Map where we can inspect the whole Bensen Lake Loop out of Twin Lakes.

The Sonora Pass to Bensen Lake Map shows the Northernmost entrance into the Hoover Wilderness, the Leavitt Meadow Trailhead.

Mono Lake
To our East we have the beauty of Mono Lake next to the sweet little town of Lee Vining.
I've had great hitchhiking there, mostly heading North on 395 after exiting the Whitney Portal down to Lone Pine on 395.

Mono Lake Facts

End of the Tahoe to Yosemite Trail
Hitting Tuolumne Meadows ends the TYT but is the rough halfway point of our Tahoe to Whitney Hike. In any case I am kicking back, refueling, relaxing, recreating with backpackers and climbers from around the world, and the various kinds of "staff" that work here.

Local Color
We have everyone from cops, Wilderness Rangers, DNC Cooks and Store Staff, Rangers that are clerks of various types, Trail Crew, HSC crew passing through on weekends, and a range of NPS scientists passing through on their way out to do some research.

Now we have to decide if we are swinging through the Valley on our way South, or if we will just pick up the JMT-PCT South into Lyell Canyon.

Maps

Bridgeport, Calif-Nev, 1985
30x60

Yosemite Valley, Calif, 1976
30x60,

Compass Offset
Magnetic North is 16 and 1/2 degrees
East of True North

scale
1:100 000

Contours
50 meters

Backpacking permitting authority:

National Park
Yosemite National Park

Wilderness Areas
Yosemite Wilderness

Hoover Wilderness

Physical location
I consider Tuolumne Meadows the center of the High Sierra. Thus this map covers the very South end of the PCT and TYT trails ending their hikes across the Northern Sierra Nevada.

The North Sierra begins as we hike North from Tuolumne Meadows, and the South Sierra rises to our South.

Virginia Canyon: 8560 feet

McCabe Lake trail junction: 9120 feet

Glen Aulin: 7850 feet

Tuolumne Meadows: 8591 feet

Trail Guide Forum
Sonora Pass to Tuolumne Meadows

Map Credit

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior
The
USGS

USGS MAP LOCATOR

I love the USGS, as you can see from the Tahoe to Whitney Maps.

I also dig the NWS, as you can see from our Weather Page.

We gotta know the terrain under our feet, and the weather in the sky. These are the basics. In that spirit, let's set you up with the USGS maps sufficient to plan and execute your High Sierra Backpacking Trip with a set of custom backpacking maps.

In fact, we can use the USGS to set us up to plan and hike anywhere in the US of A.

Move the Map to the Sierras. Or your favorite backpacking spot in the US of A. Navigate the map to the area you wish to locate maps. Click "Mark Point" in the options to see the USGS map grid of the various scaled maps.

Select the maps that will help you plan and execute your backpacking trip, set up a directory on your computer named for the trip or location of the maps, and begin downloading those suckers.

Open your USGS maps with Adobe Reader.

But first, we have to "unzip" the maps.

I use 7zip.

Custom Maps
Once we get the maps downloaded, unzipped, and running on Adobe Reader we can cut and paste the pieces of the maps we need together, and mark our selected hiking routes to create our own customized maps using MS Paint, Photoshop, or some other image software.

Printing
If we want to print up our maps for field use we need some printer technology and knowledge. I understand Inkjet printers, special inks, and the proper paper are necessary to print up servicable maps.

At least one reader of Tahoe to Whitney has copied and printed out Tahoe to Whitney Maps with success.

Online and Trail Maps

That is totally cool for personal and non-profit uses.