JMT: Happy Isles to Little Yosemite Valley
Finally, after months of planning and training, I was heading up to Yosemite Valley to start the John Muir Trail!
![JMT: Happy Isles to Little Yosemite Valley](/content/images/size/w2000/2021/11/clouds-rest.jpg)
Finally, after months of planning and training, I was heading up to Yosemite to start the John Muir Trail!
Getting to the trailhead in Yosemite Valley
I took a train to Merced and then the YARTS bus up to Yosemite Valley. I was happy I wasn’t driving, as traffic in the valley was crazy.
![Yosemite Valley.](https://marcushellberg.com/content/images/2021/11/yosemite-valley.jpg)
Once I arrived, I went to pick up my permit and got some lunch. I then went to set up my tent in the backpacker’s campground before exploring the valley. The campground was quite big, but only had a few tents when I arrived.
![Backpackers' Campground.](https://marcushellberg.com/content/images/2021/11/backpackers-campground.jpg)
I hiked a short hike up to Mirror Lake. It sprinkled a little, but not enough to deter any of the people swimming in the river.
![Views at Mirror Lake.](https://marcushellberg.com/content/images/2021/11/mirror-lake.jpg)
After checking out Mirror Lake, I headed back into Yosemite Village to get some dinner. I then retreated to the campground. There were now tens of tents set up all over the campsite. I spent some time talking to other hikers before going to bed – excited to get up early the next morning.
Day 1 – 13 miles, 5280 ft ascent
I woke up with the sun before 6 AM. Most hikers at the Backpackers’ Campground were already packing their stuff.
The Happy Isles trailhead was a 15-minute walk from the campground, through drive-in campgrounds.
As I was walking towards the trailhead, I noticed that I hadn’t downloaded the topo layer in my Guthooks app. The Google street map was very unhelpful for navigating. I tried downloading it on the little bit of LTE service I had but wasn’t able to. Fortunately, I had a paper map and offline topo maps on Gaia, so it wasn’t a big deal.
![The trail heading out from Happy Isles.](https://marcushellberg.com/content/images/2021/11/happy-isles-trailhead.jpg)
The trail leading out from Yosemite Valley was paved and somewhat steep. There were lots of people already out hiking although it was only a little after 7 in the morning.
After a mile, the JMT split off from the more popular Mist Trail that went down to Vernal Fall. Once I was on the JMT, I only saw a few other hikers.
After I got to the top of the falls, I decided I wanted to go and check them out closer, so I went down to the river and the overlook above the falls. I then continued on the alternate trail past Nevada Falls before re-joining the JMT.
![Vernal Falls seen from above.](https://marcushellberg.com/content/images/2021/11/vernal-fall.jpg)
I got to the backpackers’ campground in Little Yosemite Valley before 10. My permit required me to stay the night there, so I set up my tent and left most of my stuff in it before continuing to Half Dome.
![Little Yosemite Campground.](https://marcushellberg.com/content/images/2021/11/little-yosemite-valley-campground.jpg)
![Outhouse at Little Yosemite Valley campground.](https://marcushellberg.com/content/images/2021/11/outhouse.jpg)
It was about 3.5 miles from the campground to the top of Half Dome – all uphill. As I climbed, the views just got more incredible.
![View toward Clouds Rest.](https://marcushellberg.com/content/images/2021/11/IMG_3354.jpeg)
Once I got to the base of Half Dome, a ranger checked my permit, and I started climbing up a series of steep steps built into the side of the Sub Dome. After the steps ended, there was a short section of somewhat steep rock to climb before it evened out.
![sub dome steps](https://marcushellberg.com/content/images/2021/11/sub-dome-steps.jpg)
Then it was time for the infamous cables up to the top. I’m pretty OK with heights, but the cables still looked very steep and made me somewhat uncomfortable. But I could see people of all ages and abilities, ranging from 10-year-olds to people with knee braces doing it, so I put on my gloves and got going.
I had hit the peak of the rush hour. Getting up the cables ended up taking more than an hour of mostly standing still while others were taking breaks above.
![Half Dome cables.](https://marcushellberg.com/content/images/2021/11/half-dome-cables.jpg)
When I finally made it to the top, I had incredible 360-degree views of the Yosemite Valley and the entire park. I stayed on top for a half hour or so, taking in the sights and eating snacks.
![View of Yosemite Valley from the top of Half Dome.](https://marcushellberg.com/content/images/2021/11/yosemite-valley-view.jpg)
Going down the cables was much less scary than I had thought and the hike back down to the campground was easy enough as it was all downhill. Once I got to the campsite, I left my pack in my tent and headed down to the river to rinse off the sweat and dust.
![People swimming in Merced River.](https://marcushellberg.com/content/images/2021/11/merced-river.jpg)
After swimming, I had some dinner and talked to hikers in neighboring tents. One of my neighbors was planning to make a 45-day solo trip from Yosemite Valley to Mt. Whitney and back on unmaintained trails and off-trail. It sure made my walk along a well-beaten path look simple.
As the sun started setting, I went down to the river again to try my luck at fishing. The river was still running high because of heavy rains the day before, and I wasn’t having any luck. But I did see a snake that had caught a nice looking brook trout.
![A snake had better luck fishing than I did.](https://marcushellberg.com/content/images/2021/11/snake-fishing.jpg)
I gave up with fishing and instead went back to my tent and listened to a podcast before turning in for the night.
![Sunset at Little Yosemite Valley campground.](https://marcushellberg.com/content/images/2021/11/little-yosemite-valley-sunset.jpg)