Backpacking from Tenaya Lake to Yosemite Valley is one of the premiere multi-day hikes in the United States, and also one of the most sought-after for permits. Throughout the hike you get to walk among towering granite rocks, feel the mist of several of Yosemite’s majestic waterfalls swim in alpine lakes, and smell the fresh coniferous forest, all while mostly hiking downhill (if starting from the North).  While on the hike, you’ll get to experience multiple Yosemite bucket list locations including Clouds Rest,  Half Dome (from multiple angles), Vernal Falls, and Yosemite Falls (if you return to the backpacking campground).

This trek also allows you to summit Half Dome “the easy way.”  Well…, not exactly the easy way, you still have to climb it haha,  but adding Half Dome to a multi-day Tenaya Canyon trek drastically reduces the intensity of reaching the top of Half Dome. Half Dome as a day hike is 16 miles and 4,800 feet of elevation gain.  However, if on the route we did backpacking from Tenaya Lake to Yosemite Valley, you could camp at Sunrise Creek 2 weeks and do a one day 5 mile, 1,400 feet elevation gain hike on one day of your multi-day trek (or many other customizations if that’s too short). 

This was my third attempt backpacking this epic route in Yosemite National Park. 

In 2018 wildfires canceled my trip to the park at the last minute. Then in 2019, my friend Charlie and I made it to Yosemite, but there was record snowfall which changed our plans. We ended up backpacking the Hetch Hetchy loop, which was similar to Yosemite Valley, except purposefully flooded, to supply San Francisco with water.  Hetch Hetchy turned into much more of an adventure than we anticipated because we got lost in unexpected massive snow drifts.  But if you’re interested in a more secluded, less traveled backpacking loop in Yosemite National Park, I recommend giving that trip report a read.

You’d like:  Backpacking Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite National Park

Permits

The permit system for Yosemite National Park is a bit more complicated than standard for NPS permits due to the extreme popularity of many of several of the hikes within Yosemite. 

The major points to consider for Yosemite Permits are:

1. Day Hiking Half Dome and Wilderness Backpacking are 2 different permits
1. Although, you can combine Half Dome with a Wilderness Permit (like we did)
2. Half Dome Day Hiking Permits open up for preseason lottery for the entire month of March before the hiking season.
3. Lotteries for scoring wilderness permits open up 24 weeks before your anticipated start date. 

Our Experience with applying for permits

Our goal was to score permits to combine Half Dome with a backpacking trek through the canyon.    

Our ideal route was winning the lottery to hike from Cathedral Lakes to Little Yosemite Valley (the entirety of Yosemite/Tenaya Canyon) while throwing in Half Dome on the second to last day.  

We applied to the lottery 5 times. 

We lost 2 lotteries and were successful (ish) 3 times.  

2 of our winning lotteries weren’t exactly what we wanted. 

One was just day hiking Half Dome. The other was the route we wanted, Cathedral Lakes to Little Yosemite Valley, but from Monday to Friday, which was going to be a PTO killer and not ideal.  We purchased both permits in case we couldn’t get anything better. 

On the last attempt, we lucked out and scored permits from Sunrise Lakes to Little Yosemite Valley over Labor Day Weekend!   Sunrise Lakes is one trail entry point closer and shaves off about 10 miles from the overall trek.  The big win here though, was that we would be hiking over a 3-day weekend.  We canceled our other 2 permits, and they went back into the reservation system.

Cancled and unclaimed permits can be reserved on a first come first serve basis.  You can also use a service like Outdoor Status to get automated notifications when sold-out permits become available. If your dates are flexible, you never know when a popular permit could randomly open up

Transportation

Backpacking Tenaya Lake to Yosemite Valley is a point-to-point hike with different entry and exit points.  Therefore, if you don’t have 2 cars, you will need to use a taxi or bus service.

If driving, there is a parking lot at either end of Tenaya Lake, and roughly halfway along it.  There’s also some additional parking along the shoulders of the road.  The ideal parking spot is at the south end of the lake, closest to the Sunrise Lakes Trailhead.  

In Yosemite Valley, there are many more parking options, but you will need to make sure to camp in a designated overnight parking area near the backpacker’s campground. 

A few weeks ahead of the trip, we booked tickets on the Yosemite Tuolumne Meadows Hiker Bus. It picked us up in the Yosemite Village at 8 am and took about 2.5 hours to get to the Tenaya Lake Trailhead.

Another option is the YARTS 395/120 E Bus. Tenaya Lake is not an official stop on the route, but is possible by request.    

The last option is hitchhiking, which is fairly uncommon/popular in the US, but doable.  You might just be waiting a while for pickup.  

Day 0 – Flying into Fresno

We arrived in Fresno in the evening and got a hotel in the area before getting last-minute supplies (fuel + snacks) and heading out to the park in the morning. Whenever you’re in Fresno gearing up for some major hiking, some restaurants I highly recommend are Dog House (get the tri-tip steak sandwich) and House of Juju (in my personal top 5 burger list). I try to go to both every time I visit.

Day 1 – Picking up Permits in the Yosemite Valley

With our permits we couldn’t actually start backpacking until Sunday of Labor Day Weekend, so we had time to sleep in, grab some breakfast, and get our last-minute shopping in. 

We arrived at Yosemite National Park Saturday afternoon via Tunnel View and it was hazyyyyy and hot!   There had been a lot of wildfires and accompanying smoke in the area. And it seriously smelt like a campfire and BBQ outside.  

We picked up our permits and then headed to the backpacker’s campground.  The backpacker’s campground is available for one night the immediate day before and after your wilderness permits (not including Half Dome Day hiking permits), which is clutch since it’s about a 3-hour drive back to Fresno from the valley. It costs $8 per person in cash, which we didn’t realize upon arrival, but we luckily had to make it work.

You’d like:  Backpacking to Canyon Creek Lakes in the Trinity Alps Wilderness

Day 2 – The Trek Begins from Tenaya Lake!

The hiker bus picked us up in the Yosemite Village at 8 am and took about 2.5 hours to get to the Tenaya Lake Trailhead. We finally started hiking at about 11 am. 

It was a very moderate and peaceful hike to start.  We made it to Sunrise Lakes in about an hour and a half and then stopped for lunch.  While shuffling some of my packing around, I accidentally left my stove behind… Luckily Ian had his and we made lunch. 

Sunrise Lakes looked like an awesome spot to camp,  but it was so close to our starting trailhead, and not on our timeline for this trip. Maybe next time from a Cathedral Lakes start!

When we picked up our permits, the park ranger told us that water was scarce and most creeks were dry. They recommended packing more water in than we usually did.  Many of the waterfalls in the park also had unusually low flow for this Labor Day Weekend. 

As we passed day hikers that had gone to Clouds Rest we asked them how the water situation was. They all confirmed there was one trickling stream that would be hard to fill up on.

Because of water concerns, we decided to cook our dehydrated meals ahead of time at lunch and eat them cold later on, just in case we never saw water again.  We took our time at Sunrise Lakes, enjoying a nice view with lunch followed by a chilly alpine swim.  

After lunch, we pushed on to Clouds Rest.  And it was intense, just like camping 😉

The 360 views from Clouds Rest were incredible.  Laffy Taffy Granite waves in every direction. 

We stayed at the top for about 2 hours, watching the sunset. 

As it darkened, we could see forest fires in the distance. 

We poorly judged the time it would take to descend down the switchbacks to our campsite and ended up hiking about half of it in the dark with headlamps.  Also, unfortunately, Molly sprained her ankle while hiking down.

Day 3 Part 1- Hiking Half Dome

Molly’s ankle got more swollen overnight, and unfortunately, she made the tough decision to skip out on Half Dome to not make her ankle worse. After all, we still had a big hike to get back to civilization without Half Dome. 

We didn’t find out until we got back several hours later due to no cell service, but while the rest of us were hiking to Half Dome, 2 small black bears came and wandered around our camp while Molly was in her tent.  We had all our food properly stored, and after a few minutes of sniffing around, they left.  Molly said it was a scary experience. 

We set off for Half Dome shortly after sunrise, around 6 am, to beat both the summer heat and the crowds. 

Transferring to our light daypacks filled with water and snacks for the Half Dome hike, we flew down the first part of the trail.  We got to the base of the initial Half Dome ascent about an hour later.

The stairs reminded me of the hike up to Mordor but with much prettier scenery and golden hour light shining down. 

We arrived at the cables portion of Half Dome around 7:30 am. The crowds were light and the weather was beautiful,  not too hot yet.  

We put our gloves on (BRING GLOVES) and began the ascent.  The cables can be slippery and hard to get a good grip on, even with no moisture in the air or precipitation.  There’s also a pile of leftover gloves people leave in case you forgot some, but you might be risking getting some nasty hand fungus, who knows how long those have been there and how many terrified sweaty hands they’ve touched. 

The cables section was not what I was expecting physically.  It was much more of an arm workout than a leg workout.  Because of the large spacing between the footholds, you pull yourself up the mountain with your arms rather than climbing steep steps.  I had to rest many times on the way up because my arms were burning out. 

But eventually, we made it to the top and the views were incredible! 

We hugged it out and cracked open some breakfast celebratory beers.

The hike down was lot easier than the way up, but also scarier in my opinion.  I flipped back and forth between my descent strategy depending on the steepness (going face first or in reverse (most people go in reverse the whole way).  It had also gotten much more crowded by the time we were descending, and so we did a lot of passing people on the way down, which was the worst part.  

Just take it slow!

You’d like:  Backpacking Paintbrush Canyon in Grand Tetons National Park

Day 3 Part 2 – A change of plans 

When we got back from Half Dome to our campsite from the night before, the sky was orange and smelled like a potent campfire from the nearby forest fires.  We packed up camp and pushed on toward our last campsite in Little Yosemite Valley.

The remainder of the hike from Half Dome back to the valley was almost entirely downhill.  This is why we chose to backpack from the northern part of the canyon down.  You shave a ton of elevation off of doing Half Dome as a day hike, and also mostly descend the backpacking trail once past Clouds Rest (and if you add on Half Dome). Backpacking the other way around would be brutal, and not enjoyable for the average backpacker in my opinion. 

By the time we got to the Little Yosemite Valley Campsite, Molly’s ankle was really hurting.  She wanted to finish up the hiking today and get it out of the way, rather than having it potentially swell up even more overnight like it did the night before.  We discussed splitting the group in 2 with Ian and Molly heading down a night early and Mike, Taylor, and I sticking with the original plan, but we did not want to split the group up.

So we pushed on.  It was all downhill back to the valley, so couldn’t be too bad, right?

The distance really took a toll on all of us. Our feet and knees were hurting. We weren’t originally planning on having a 14-mile day (including Half Dome no less).

As you approach Nevada Falls, there are 2 trails you can take to get back down to the valley, John Muir and the Mist Trail.  The Mist trail is more direct but is much steeper and can be slippery from the waterfall mist, which didn’t sound great for descending.  Taking the John Muir Trail instead adds an additional 1.5 miles, but is much more moderate.  

I felt this section of the John Muir Trail was one of the most scenic parts of our entire hike.  We were gifted with beautiful views of Half Dome and Nevada Falls from a side vantage point at Clark Point.

Once at Clark Point, there’s again a trail divergence with 2 ways to get down to the Valley.  One way leads down to Vernal Falls but includes over 600 steep and uneven steps, whereas the other direction continues down the John Muir Trail with 10+ switchbacks.   Since Vernal Falls was reported to be a trickle, and Molly’s ankle was hurting, we continued down the John Muir Trail. The difference in distance between the 2 routes is about .5 miles. 

We eventually made it down and crushed some pizzas in the village. 

Summary

Hiking Tenaya Lakes to Little Yosemite Valley with the Half Dome Valley is one of the premier backpacking routes in the US National Parks.  By starting at the north end of the canyon, once passing Clouds Rest (and not including Half Dome), almost the whole trek is downhill through the beautiful Yosemite/Tenaya Canyon.  The permit lottery is very competitive, but once secured, there’s a lot of flexibility and customizations you can make to this route.  

With more time you may consider starting at Cathedral Lakes and camping there one night, and then Sunrise Lakes one night.  With even more time, you could add on Illiouette Falls via the Panorama Trail to your descent back down into the valley or as a side day trip. 

Related Blog Posts

Outside of the main Yosemite Valley region lies a hidden gem for hikers, backpackers, and nature lovers looking to get away from the crowds of Yosemite: Hetch Hetchy (HH). This valley was converted into a reservoir in 1913 and supplies the bulk of San Francisco’s water.  Many say that before the valley was filled with water, it was even more beautiful then it’s more famous neighbor, Yosemite Valley. However, even with the valley dammed up, it’s still a very beautiful and picturesque area to explore and is filled with great hiking and backpacking opportunities. The most popular multi-day route in the region, The Hetch Hetchy Loop, provides backpackers with nonstop granite cliff views, cascading waterfalls, and lush forests, all while following the path of the Tuolumne River.

Map of Hetch Hetchy Loop Trail

Permits

If camping overnight, this hike requires wilderness permits from Yosemite National Park from May-October. Yosemite uses a reservation system for most of its popular backcountry routes, including Hetch Hetchy.   60% of the spots for any given trailhead are reservable, and the rest are available on a “first-come, first-served” basis.  Reservations are available 24 weeks in advance on Recreation.gov and the permit processing fee is $10 per application.

The “first-come, first-served” permits have changed for Yosemite National Park since COVID.  Rather than being a walk-up permit, they are released on Recreation.gov seven days in advance of the desired start date at 7AM PDT.

The ideal Entry Point for permits on this hike is Rancheria Falls or Beehive Meadows, depending on which direction you do the loop. I did the loop Counter-Clockwise so we got Rancheria Falls permits.

When using the online permit application system, You only need to select the start date of your hike. Later in the application process you specify how many nights in the backcountry you will be and rough estimates of where you plan to camp.

The permits must be picked up in person at a wilderness center one day in advance (8AM to 5PM) or on the same day (8AM-11AM).  The easiest place to pick up the permits for Hetch Hetchy is at the Hetch Hetchy Entrance Station.

How To Get There

Hetch Hetchy is located outside of the main Yosemite Valley area to the north and not directly reachable from the valley.  Hetch Hetchy is about an hour and a half drive from Little Yosemite Valley and requires exiting and re-entering the park at the Hetch Hetchy Entrace Station.  The gates to the Hetch Hetchy road are open from 7AM to 9PM on May 1- Labor Day.  For dates outside this window and road conditions click here.

Overnight parking is located at the Wapama & Rancheria Falls Trailhead for free to backpackers. Also, backpackers are able to use the backpacker’s campground for one day before and after their trip for $8 per person for each night you use. The backpacker’s campsites are first-come first-serve and on the honor system for paying the fees with the provided envelope (bring exact change!).  The campsites in the backpackers campground include a food storage locker and picnic table, with water about a 10-15 minute walk away.

You’d like:  Backpacking from Tenaya Lake to Yosemite Valley

Trip Report

I did this trail with my friend Charlie on May 27-29, 2019, but have recently updated this post to be more thorough and include the latest permit information.  The snowpack in 2019 was at record levels and changed our original plans from backpacking Mineral King in Sequoia National Park to instead backpacking the Hetch Hetchy Loop. 

When we picked up our permits from the Hetch Hetchy Entrance Ranger Station, the Park Ranger told us to expect up to 4 feet of snow and jokingly asking us if we brought our galoshes (rubber rain boots). Or maybe he wasn’t joking, because they would have been nice as you’ll see later on in this post!  We bought trekking poles and microspikes before the trip in preparation for potential snow hikes. The trekking poles were an excellent investment and I don’t know if we would have made it through safely without them, but we never used the microspikes. Microspikes are good for hard packed snow and ice, which we were expecting, however we were the first ones to do the Hetch Hetchy Loop after some decent snow a few days earlier, so the snow wasn’t packed at all. 

Day 1

Yosemite Valley is somewhat on the way to HH so we stopped there first to check out a few of the iconic sites, pick up our wilderness permits and rent a bear canister.  

HH was about an hour drive from the valley.  We did some last minute packing and divvying up the food (cheez-its were our nectar) and then we were ready to begin our 3 day trek!

The backpackers parking area is a decent walk to the start of the trail, maybe 3/4 of a mile and all downhill.  When we got to the dam, we had nice views of the reservoir and a few waterfalls. Wapama Falls was deceivingly far away. I thought it’d be a quick hike to get there, but it was 2.5 miles away and took over an hour.

Once we got there, the falls were raging and the mist was refreshing.

After stopping for a quick lunch before leaving the reservoir area we met some trail friends, Jeremy and Becky. We hiked together for a few miles but then split up after Rancheria Falls, which was around 5.5 miles from the trailhead.  

Rancheria Falls had lots of nice campsites, and sleeping next to the sound of rushing water would have been great. However, after examining the map, Charlie and I decided to push on to knock out some elevation gain for day 2. Looking back, both of us are really happy we made this decision, especially after a challenging day 2 with lots of snow trekking.

We climbed over 1000 feet in a mile and a half after the Rancheria Falls and entered the clouds. It was exhausting and we were desperately looking for anywhere to camp.  We ended up finding a flat spot in a boulder field off of the trail and near a creek. It didn’t look like anyone had camped here before (so no fires), but it was a pretty cool spot.

We set up camp, ate some dehydrated Fettuccini Alfredo with Chicken from Backpackers Pantry (which was surprisingly good) and called it a night pretty early.  I got up around 1am to pee, and the clouds had dissipated and the milky way was bright! I also saw a lot of meteors! I ended up waking up Charlie so he could see it as well and persuaded him to help me do some astrophotography.

You’d like:  Backpacking to Canyon Creek Lakes in the Trinity Alps Wilderness

Day 2

The next morning we gave our gear a chance to dry out before departing.  It didn’t rain, but all of the moisture from the clouds made it damp.

Our next landmark was Tilltill Valley, about 1 mile from where we camped on night 1. We were very glad we brought sandals to switch into because the trail went through a large boggy area with water up to our knees.  I’m not sure if it’s always this boggy, but I feel like it probably is.

Next was the big climb for day 2.  About 2000 more feet to get to the high point of the loop, 7650 feet.  We were definitely starting to feel the air getting thinner as we ascended because we both  live at sea level elevations. As we approached 7000 feet, the snow was starting to become a lot more prevalent.

And soon, we lost the trail…

The 4 feet of snow estimate from the park ranger turned out to be a massive understatement —  we were hiking on snow drifts up to 10 feet tall. We were also sinking into the snow at least a foot with every step. Snowshoes would have been great to have, but instead we had cold soggy hiking boots.

It was interesting trailblazing through the snowfields constantly looking for signs of a trail.  I don’t know why the NPS doesn’t have trail markers on this section of the loop, because they do on most of the day 3 section of the loop.  

I have an app on my phone called Topo+, which is topographical maps synced with your GPS, and I downloaded the HH area for offline use for the trip.  It’s practically a modern orienteering device. The app saved us multiple times when we wandered off trail in the snow. We actually followed deer and bear tracks frequently through the snow because they seemed to be following the trail. The animals probably do follow the trail considering the forest is pretty dense and the trail is a nice footpath for animals.

We took turns leading in the snow and the person behind would step in the other’s footprints to save energy.  A big struggle of hiking through the snow drifts was avoiding postholes (loose snow near fallen trees or above melt areas).  Snow around the fallen trees would collapse under our weight and our legs would fall through, up to hip deep at times. We would use our poles to poke around ahead of us to check if the snow in front of us was packed enough to walk on.  It was an ACL/MCL spraining nightmare but we managed to escape with no knee injuries. Charlie did however fall through a posthole and got scraped by a tree branch which turned into a massive bruise; luckily the stick didn’t pierce through his leg. I also had some very tender Achilles tendons the next morning, and was limping around for a few days after completing the loop.

Snow trekking also required us to have to cross some snow bridges over creeks.  Both my legs fell through, but my backpack stopped me from falling all the way through.  It was very terrifying and I ended up crawling out on my belly very quickly.

After about 3 miles wandering around in the snow we finally found  a section of solid ground where we could rest. Charlie let out a primordial grunt when we made it: “OOGA BOOGA!”, and that became one of our catch phrases for the rest of the 2 week trip.  I also unfortunately left my favorite pink Nalgene water bottle at the rest site. I’m guessing we were pretty far off the actual trail so I wonder if anyone will ever find it.

After leaving the rest spot, the snow disappeared rapidly and we made our way to a very rocky area. We spotted a large solo cairn off in the distance and were finally back on a trail!  That cairn is definitely the most helpful and happiness inducing cairn I’ve ever come across on a hike.

We were once again in a cloud, and camped on the northeast side of Lake Vernon. I would say the north side has better views and campsites then the south side near the main trail but they’re both nice. The south side has the advantages of being near the creek, and not having to hike an extra half mile.

On night 2 we ate meat lasagna from Mountain House, and threw some of the cheez-its in for a delicious meal on night 2. We also split a dehydrated ice cream sandwich, which tasted just like a normal ice cream sandwich, but super crunchy and not cold. As we were eating, the clouds opened up a bit and we got some nice cotton candy looking clouds around the lake. A curious mule deer also wandered into our campsite and we had to shoo it away.

While we were setting up camp a  boy scout troop arrived and set up camp in the same area.  After chatting with one of the group leaders, we learned they got lost in the same snowdrifts and ended up finding our footprints and that’s how they made it to the lake.  They were confused when they saw 2 of us but only one set of tracks haha. Charlie and I definitely felt like some true wilderness explorers.

Day 3

The next morning we had damp gear again due to the low clouds and let our gear dry out while eating breakfast near the lake.  We saw a lot of salamanders near the shore and they were very entertaining to watch. It was like natural television out in the backcountry.

Day 3 was very chill and almost all downhill.  It was about 11 miles back to the campsite and we did it in under 6 hours.  We pretty much only stopped for lunch and to filter our water from creeks a few times. The last 4 miles on the beehive trail were quite steep and had a lot of switchbacks.  While descending, we passed some people about 2 miles away from the main trail and they looked exhausted and still had a long way to go. It would be a very strenuous endeavor to do the loop clockwise and make it all the way to Lake Vernon on Day 1.

The last mile of the loop had some of the best views.  Seeing the reservoir from a higher elevation was a beautiful sight after hiking through the pine forests most of the day.  

Overall this was a challenging, but fun loop. Large amounts of snow so late in the season made the hike pretty unique and it was also both Charlie and my first time backpacking in snow. The loop definitely would have been more enjoyable with snowshoes, and even more enjoyable with a lot less snow.   If you want to do the Hetch Hetchy loop I recommend doing a similar itinerary to what we did and to definitely go counter-clockwise.

Related Blog Posts

Overview:

Location: Canyon Creek Lakes Trail in Trinity Alps, California

Dates: June 1-2, 2019

Distance: 16.7 miles

Difficulty: Moderate

Elevation Gain: 2,969 ft.

After Charlie and I finished backpacking in Hetch Hetchy we headed back to Fresno to pick up Wyatt, Taylor, and Ian. Next, we all went out to the Tioga Sequoia brewery to celebrate Charlie’s birthday and discuss where to go next. We needed to try to escape the snowpack in the High Sierra’s and find somewhere else to go because everyone still wanted to do some backpacking, but our 5 day Mineral King permits were canceled by the NPS. We decided to head to Redding, CA and do some backpacking somewhere up in Northern California.

After some internet searching during our road trip up, and a pitstop at Pinnacles National Park, we decided to start with some backpacking to the Canyon Creek Lakes in the Trinity Alps.

The parking lot was at the end of a windy 11 mile road that heads up into the canyon.  When we got to the lot at around 10AM, there were already at least 20 cars there, but still space for plenty more. We did some last-minute rearranging of our gear and food and then were ready to start the ascent!

After about a half mile we came to the first major creek crossing. The water was around knee deep, so everyone changed into sandals or went barefoot. I highly recommend bringing sandals or water shoes for this route.

We hiked for about another mile and a half and then got our first epic view of the snowcapped mountains.  There is also a nice campsite here for anyone who gets a late start on the trail.

At around the half point we stopped at a nice waterfall for lunch.

About a mile from the lake we came to the next major stream crossing.  This one was a lot wider and flowing well.  It took us a while to figure out where to cross and where the trail continued.  The trick is to head towards the left when you first arrive at the creek, and not to keep walking up the right side.  When we crossed, there were lots of large fallen trees to walk on and a wooden trail marker nailed to a tree on the opposite side.

You’d like:  Backpacking the Hetch Hetchy Loop in Yosemite National Park

Although the entire hike is 2600 feet of elevation gain, it’s fairly evenly distributed along the entire trail. After 7 miles of hiking uphill though, we were getting tired and there were two final rocky hills to scramble up before making it to the lower lake.  One of those rocky hills has an epic 360 degree view of the canyon.

We arrived at the lower lake at around 6PM and many people already had camps set up.  It definitely looked like some people had been there more than one day, too.  The lake is big and there’s plenty of space for people to spread out, but the problem is that the terrain is very rocky and it can be hard to find flat spots to set up a tent.  The smaller your tent, the more spots you’ll be able to find.  (Remember to always camp 100 feet away from water sources as per the USNF regulations.) We didn’t see many places to set up hammocks.

We walked about 3/4 of the east side of the lower lake and still couldn’t find any good tent spots.  Our group was ready to call it a day but Charlie and I really wanted to push on to the upper lake to see if there were any better campsites. When I stood up from resting, my knee was in intense pain and I could barely walk. The pain came out of nowhere, I didn’t notice anything unusual while hiking.   I pushed through the pain and we headed for the upper lake because we still needed to find a campsite for the night.

The upper lake is only about 50 feet higher in elevation than the lower lake but looked significantly different.  We had to hike through a bit of snow to get up to it and about half of the lake was still frozen.  We ended up finding a sweet spot to camp between the upper and lower lakes that could fit both our 4-man tent and 2-man tent.

 After setting up camp, we explored explored the area more.

The sun was beginning to set, and the mountains were soon going to block the sunlight so Ian and I decided to jump into the lower lake while we could still dry off. 

Considering the upper lake was still partially frozen I’m guessing the water temperature was near freezing and I sure felt the shock and adrenaline when I jumped in.  I immediately swam out and ran all the way back up to our campsite while hyperventilating. 100% worth it!

For dinner we had some delicious Mountain House Beef Stroganoff.  As we were finishing dinner, a big rain cloud formed so we hid in our tents for about 15 minutes.  Once the rain passed, we emerged from our tents and were greeted by a phenomenal rainbow above the snow-capped mountains.

The scenery changed again when a lightning storm started rolling in.  It rained a bit more and then the sky turned pink and purple.

The next morning my knee was still hurting pretty badly. I was somewhat worried because I knew hiking 8 miles was not a good idea but there really weren’t many alternatives. The guys offered to stay another day and see if my knee would heal a bit, but I didn’t think it would.  We also didn’t have much food left so I said we should press on. I’m not gonna lie, the thought of trying to get a helicopter ride out definitely crossed my mind a few times.

It turns out we all got various injuries on this hike.  Taylor got a bad rash all over his body from what we think was poison ivy and Ian got a bad rash on his hips from his backpack strap.  

I ended up hobbling all the way back down to the car lagging behind the rest of my group using my trekking poles to try and keep weight off of my knee.  After switching into my Chacos for the wide stream crossing, I decided to leave them on for the remainder of the hike so that I could just walk through the little streams, instead of trying to balance on rocks and roots.

Overall backpacking to the Canyon Creek Lakes is moderate in difficulty, and I would highly recommend it.  I also recommend camping there for at least one night; additional nights if you want to head even further into the backcountry where there’s even more alpine lakes and waterfalls.

Some additional photos for this post were taken by Ian and Taylor.  Check them out on Instagram for more of their work!

UPDATE: After some physical therapy, my knee is all healed up and I’m out hiking and climbing again!