Location

Main Features

We are dropping like a rock down through the expansive meadows filling the upper segment of Cold Canyon once we finish the moderate climb out of Virginia Canyon hiking just a short ways South from the McCabe Lakes junction.

Hiking a shory ways past the Big Rock (you will recognize it when you see it...) we come to the end of the expansive meadows we've hiked for miles coming down upper Cold Canyon, where we depart meadows to cross a ridge arm that the Cold Canyon Creek goes around.
That means it's time for a brief moderate climb over this ridge arm to drop into the more gorge-like lower segment of Cold Canyon for the remainder of the hike down to Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp.

Click the red dots on the trail maps to see that location on the trail guide.

Click the black dotted routes on the large-scale 30 minute maps to see these underlaying detailed 7.5 minute maps.

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.

Mapping, Mileage,
and
National Park Information

Yosemite Permits

I have not yet written the Yosemite National Parks permit page. But I will offer some advice.

(Update: Yosemite Permits)

I still offer this advice as valid:

Walk into Yosemite. Don't even mess with getting permits there.

Want to hike the JMT? Start at Sonora Pass. Drop down to the Valley backwards on the JMT once you arrive at Tuolumne Meadows, then reaccquire the JMT in Lyell Canyon via Voglesang.

Or start into Rancheria Creek down Kerrick Canyon from Twin Lakes on Highway 395 a few miles West of Bridgeport.

Yosemite Permit Problems Solved.

Yes, I know that may not solve your permit problem. But it is a start.

We could start into Yosemite from closer trailheads located on the East flank of the Sierra in the Hoover Wilderness, but we may well face the same problems with reservations and quotas that we encounter in Yosemite.

Thus I prefer entering from further North, such as through Emigrant Wilderness, though the Hoover Wilderness trailheads are a popular alternative to beginning backpacking trips out of Yosemite Trailheads.

Hoover Wilderness Permits

Topographic Maps Information

Map
Falls Ridge, Calif, provisional, 1992, USGS 7.5 minute Topographic

Tioga Pass, Calif, 1994, USGS 7.5 minute Topographic

scale
1:24 000

Contours
40 Feet

Compass Offset

Map Magnetic North is 14 degrees 30" East of True North.

Backpacking permitting authority

National Park
Yosemite Permits

Wilderness Area
Yosemite

Hoover Wilderness Permits

Physical location
South of Highway 108, North of Highway 120.

McCabe Lake Junction
9120 feet

Big Rock in Cold Canyon
8680 feet

Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp
7850 feet

Trail Forum Section
Backpacking
North Yosemite Backcountry
TYT and PCT
Sonora Pass to Tuolumne Meadows

Trail Forum Page
Miller Lake
to
Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp

Trail Guide
Trail Section
Sonora Pass to Tuolumne Meadows

Guide Pages and Hiking Maps Index

Trail Guide
PAGE
Miller Lake to Glen Aulin

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.

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