Upper Yosemite Fall

Summary | Parking/Trailhead | Trail Description | Supplies | Itinerary

Yosemite Falls	Yosemite Falls Bridge	View from Yosemite Falls Bridge
View from Upper Yosemite Fall	View from Upper Yosemite Fall	View from Upper Yosemite Fall

Summary

The hike to the top of Upper Yosemite Falls is approximately a 6.4 mile round trip. In comparison to the Half Dome Hike, this trail is much shorter but is almost constantly a steep up-hill journey. I do not encourage this hike for anyone not in good health.

Getting to the top of Upper Yosemite Falls will give you a fantastic feeling of achievement. By the time you reach to top, you know how hard you've worked and you're rewarded with a extraordinary view of the valley below.

Parking/Trailhead

Use the West side of the Yosemite Lodge parking lot. In the summer time this lot fills up pretty early and visitors start parking on the edge of the main road so get there early. The trailhead is on North/East side of the Sunnyside Backpacker's Campground. Cross the street from the Yosemite Lodge parking lot, walk through the Sunnyside Campground Parking lot (intended only for Sunnyside campers) and you'll find a trailhead sign right on the other side.

Trail Description

This is one of the steeper trails that you'll find from the Valley Floor to the Valley Rim. This steepness means that there are a lot of accidents on the trail due to hikers slipping on loose gravel or wet rocks. On my last hike, I slipped at least a dozen times due to gravel and bumped my butt on the trail twice (ouch!). If I wasn't so experienced at tripping, I'd be in a world of hurt. All of these slips occurred when I was headed DOWN the trail . . . so be CAREFUL!! Of course, no one laughed because they were doing the same thing.

Speaking of slippage, one really needs to pay attention to the rocks on the trail near the mist of the waterfall. This doesn't account for a large portion of the trail (percentage wise) but these extremely slippery and slimy rocks have no mercy for the hiker in a rush.

The first half of the trail is approximately 80% shaded which is something that we learn to appreciate during the summer. The second half of the trail is approximately 5% shaded which is something that is very hard to forget on a hot day. Now guess which part of the trail is steeper?

Supplies

Use the standard Day Hike Checklist for this hike.

Itinerary

If we can help it, we'd like to start early enough to so that we can spend around an hour and a half at the top of the falls just kicking back and enjoying the view. The biggest scheduling danger on this trip is hiking down the trail after dark which very often pitch. This is also the reason that bringing flashlights is MANDATORY!

The following times are very general and can vary greatly if additional trails are followed at the top of Upper Yosemite Falls. It's always best to plan nothing else during a hike day.

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