UKC

Hi All,

Heading to California in September and spending a week in the Yosemite area. Going to be staying in Sonora to the North of Yosemite Valley and looking for advice on any good walks (or 'hikes'... hate that word) in the area, and if there's any good peaks or ridges that involve a bit of scrambling (up to about the same difficulty as the Aonach Eagach). Searching online is a bit of a task as there is so much in the area! Won't be taking climbing stuff but if anyone's been and can offer some advice or good areas to visit that would be much appreciated!

Also is it worth buying a map for the area beforehand? Or is that something that's better bought there? This is my first time to the area so everything will be new. Keen to get to Yosemite Valley for at least 1 day to look at El Cap if nothing else. I've heard horror stories about the traffic and general touristy nature of the valley so I'm not fussed about spending loads of time there.

Ideally I'd like to have 2 or 3 days worth of good 'hikes' to do, and if there's any ones that involve a scramble then that's a bonus.

Cheers,

Hugh

It's a long time ago, but...

In October 1997 I went to Yosemite with my brother, who was then living in San Francisco, and we had a great walk up North Dome from Mirror Lake. All I can really tell you is that I've got labelled photos from that day suggesting that we ascended by the Snow Creek Trail and descended miles later by the Falls Trail, visiting Yosemite Point along the way (I remember looking at the roof of a building half a mile vertically below!) and had great views of Clouds Rest, Half Dome, the Quarter Domes and more on the other side of the valley. There might have been some mild scrambling involved, but my main memory is of a scenic route through stunning sweeps of granite (got one photo captioned 'Just like the Etive Slabs!', but covering an area that would swallow the slabs).

Hi Pete,

That sounds great, I'll do some more research on that.

Cheers!