Agile Trekker: Mariposa Grove, Yosemite

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
9/3/2022	7.8	5 hours 50 minutes	1,172'	2.0 mph	644.9

Parking:

Mariposa Grove Parking area
Take free shuttle to Mariposa Grove

Maps:

Gaia GPS app

Directions:

Hiked most of the trails in this area, including hiking up to Wawona Point via the Mariposa Grove Trail. Part of the Perimeter Trail was closed due to the recent Washburn fire.

I flew to California this week to do a guided backpacking trip. I started out by staying in a hotel in Oakhurst, CA, which is just outside of Yosemite, on the western side of the park. It's convenient to the Southgate entrance to the park. I had 2 free days before my trip, with no real plan. California was going through a heat wave, with temperatures in Fresno reaching 112 degrees, and 104 or so in Yosemite Valley. Yikes. I didn't want to just hang out in an air-conditioned room, so I ended up driving to Mariposa Grove for an easy hike. I've seen sequoias before but wanted to see them again.

A permit is required to get into the park, even before you arrive and pay for parking. Luckily, getting into the park was easy, with no long lines. From there it was a very short drive to a parking lot to see the sequoias. Once parked, a shuttle bus takes you to the main trailhead. I only carried 2 liters of water with me, as I didn't expect to hike long. That was a mistake. I would have spent more time hiking if I had more water. And there was no water on the trails. The area smelled mildly smokey, but not bad considering there was a recent fire in the area.

Of course, the trails near the parking lot were very busy. I decided to hike to the furthest spot from the parking lot, in order to get away from the crowds. And yes, that worked. I hiked to Wawona Point and sat down and hung out sketching for a while. I pretended I was acclimating, but the altitude wasn't much more than some of our hikes in western North Carolina.