Backpacking to Ten Lakes in Yosemite

We camped the first night in the Valley. It was super crowded, but we got a great spot right by the creek so it was pretty quiet.I took a nap in the hammock. Ah, nice, no kids to tend to.

That night Chuck took me out to dinner at the Awahnee Hotel. I felt pretty funny climbing out of a little backpacking tent in the dirt wearing a little black dress and high heels. And, I definietly got the looks walking through the campground to the restroom. :)

The food was great. We had Pork something or other.

The dining hall is beautiful. There was a pianist playing the whole time. So pretty.

Starting out on our backpacking trip. We ended up doing the Ten Lakes because our first two choices the trail quota was already met. Only ten backpackers a day are allowed on the trail we took. It was nice feeling like we were the only ones at the lake.


We set up camp at Lake 2. That afternoon, we hiked over the hill to Lake 1 and went swimming. Day 2, we did some cross country hiking to Lakes 3, 4, 5, and 6. We saw Lake 7, but didn't do the hike all the way down there. I'm still not really sure what happened to Lakes 8, 9, and 10?

Half Moon Meadow

Our first glimpse at Lake 2 coming down off the ridge.

Lake 3.

Lake 5Lake 6


Lake 7

The brook trout were beautiful with their spots and red fins. Chuck probably caught 20 of them. It was fun to watch him fly fish for the first time. It's much more entertaining to be a spectator with fly fishing than spinners or bait. Especially since the water is so clear that you can watch the fish swim over and take the fly. We were going to keep this guy and eat him for dinner, but after stringing him on the line, we just couldn't bring ourselves to eat him when we had brought plenty of other food to eat. We're such softies. :) So we unstrung him and let him go.

Chuck fell in the lake while fishing. And, since he likes to pack lightly by only bringing one shirt, one pair of socks, etc., he had to wear my shirt, socks, shoes, jacket, etc., while we dried out his clothes by the fire. Here he is sporting my green shirt that I wore on day 1. What a good sport though, he even posed for a picture.

Lake 4 had lots of fish and some deeper pools.

In the background is Lake 2, the lake we camped at.

Raining on Lake 2.

Here we are all packed up and ready to hit the trail home. It had started raining around 1 am and didn't let up until around 10:30am after we had hiked about 3 of the 6 miles back to the car. So much for a 40% chance of scattered thunder showers. Packing up in the rain is not very fun. Thankfully it was our last day so we weren't stuck with wet gear for another night though. We did decide that we need to come up with a rain solution for our tent, since it really isn't waterproof. We were damp by morning, but the temp was still pretty warm, so we didn't get cold at all.