Buena Yosemite: Merced Lake and Little Yosemite Valley

Yosemite National Park

DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7  |  DAY 8

Blue line for day 6. Click for interactive map

The location of the Merced Lake Ranger Station is deep in a canyon in a thick forest and it wasn't much less dark and dreary in the morning than it was in the last of the light. I know Daniil would have preferred to go that last little bit to Merced Lake the night before. There's only a few little things we would have missed in the last of the twilight.

Following bridges and trails through the flats above Merced Lake, surrounded by tall trees.

Then everything opens up as the rocks take over the bottom of the canyon.

Merced River pours into Merced Lake.

We found the High Sierra Camp in its winterized state, and some of that in a bit of disrepair. Apparently these haven't been open since 2018 although 3 of 5 opened briefly last year. The park service needs to do something with water and toilets and is prioritizing other things. The camps served "more than 13,000 visitors" each year, plus those who just stop by for food, but apparently not now. Apparently there's arguments about if they should reopen at all, with tradition (this one was the first, built in 1916) as the argument for and "degraded wilderness experience" as the argument against. Frankly, "degraded wilderness experience" is a ship that has long sailed for this area, as we would find out throughout the day. The High Sierra Camp is a rather unique experience and you only get a spot through a very competitive lottery process. Besides, according to my map, the bit around the camp and its water supply isn't wilderness. At $200 a night per person, surely these things were paying for themselves. There's a backpacker camp right next to it, so it doesn't end up excluding the poor from camping here.

Merced Lake High Sierra Camp was not bustling at all.

Out across the infilling meadow is Merced Lake.

Wandering along the edge of the lake took quite some time. We found a few illegal camping spots along the way.

A mallard makes a wake getting away from us.

Beside the large Merced Lake.

Many spots to take in a different view.

Sneezeweed waving along the shore.

We met people around the end of the lake. It had been at least 48 hours since we last saw people other than ourselves. There are ways to get a less degraded wilderness experience, specifically having solitude, it just doesn't happen in this spot. Not in August.

Leaving Merced Lake, but the river is still lake-like.

Then the Merced River is more like a water slide.

Wildlife: a western fence lizard.

I was enjoying the Merced River. I've never seen it here, but it is the character of the Merced River I know from many childhood hikes on the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls and sometimes all the way to Nevada Falls. Apparently I got halfway up the steps to the top of Vernal Falls when I was 3! At a run. It caused all manner of trouble for my parents who had two other children, 3 and 1 year old, to look after too.

Shaded and sunny pools.

Our trail, cut out of the rock in many places, passes more grand Sierra junipers.

Even without leaving the river far, we get wide views in the oversized glacier carved canyon.

With the river behind me, the same side of the canyon is still very far away at times.

Watching what happens when the sheeting water hits a crack.

Many a little waterfall when the sheeting water hits a drop.

A rubble of rounded boulders gather where the valley flattens.

Some of the cliffs and the trees that climb them.

Meanwhile, back at the Merced River.

We stopped by a calm pool and watched the trout while snacking. More groups passed by. More people than we had met over the entirety of the first half of the trip passed us somewhere in the vicinity of Echo Valley.

The last little bit of the pool where we stopped for snacks.

This trail does not always stay down by the river. Across a bridge, it rises a little while the river drops away, giving a little of those higher views like we had the day before.

The river starts to drop away past a few lovely potholes. There's also mortars to be found at the edge of this river, but these aren't those.

Looking down canyon at how Merced River will continue to drop.

A thin line of meadow along a stream showed off the whitestem hedgenettle.

We have this lovely dome of granite as boulders mark the trail across high granite.

Peaks in view above the upstream section as we start down once more toward the river.

Down on a trail constructed of well worn rocks.

So many waterfalls and cascades.

Getting rocky and wide again downstream.

We stopped at another pool just before a bridge for lunch. The boys went splashing in the water.

Down to the level of Merced River now.

We had a short climb to get onto trail through an exceptionally narrow piece of canyon. Did the glaciers go high through here? Do they squeeze?

Canyon narrows.

The Merced River is still beautiful when we see it.

The very narrow bit. Water carved this.

We had been seeing some evidence of fire in the upper slopes, but it was utterly unmissable when we came in sight of Lost Valley, a small valley just above Little Yosemite Valley. The 2014 Meadow fire was devastating to the trees in both valleys.

Bunnel Cascade and the devastated trees of Lost Valley in a record breakingly bad panorama construction.

We get mountain blue penstemon blooming in the burned areas.

Admittedly, we can see more of the rock and water features around us without all that pesky greenery around the blackened trunks getting in the way.

A thin stream plunges down a long drop, then over a shorter overhang in the distant rocks.

Remnant trees accentuate a blind arch.

Rounding the narrowed section between valleys. Plenty would still be visible if the trees remained.

Sugarloaf Dome rises as a particularly round thing above the trail.

Little Yosemite Valley was as bad as Lost Valley. Standing black sticks everywhere it was a bit flat.

Down another cascade of sheeting water to Little Yosemite Valley.

USGS marks this cascade as a waterfall. OSM names it Cascade Fall.

A look back at the upper section of Little Yosemite Valley.

A rock wren stopped nearby long enough for a photo.

Along the way through the valley, we noticed that our trail had once been paved. Accessibility, way out here! We learned from the ranger who checked our permit at camp that it was a road built from Glacier Point. I also noticed a dome familiar from climbing it.

Half Dome presents an unfamiliar profile to most people when seen from Little Yosemite Valley.

Zoom in and there's still people going up the cables, or backing down them. Most are along the lower half at this captured moment.

The burn ended shortly before we finished hiking. We'd seen quite a few people by the time we arrived at Little Yosemite Valley Camp. We had passed into areas commonly day hiked from the crowded Yosemite Valley, so camping was limited to certain areas. There were campers everywhere inside the legal boundaries, and one just outside practically on the river. Ahem. They weren't stealth and probably had a long discussion with the ranger later. It did make me happy to find a Sierra Designs Flashlight that looked like the 1990s version, not the current ones, among the mix. Most the tents looked like they'd recently come from the REI showroom floor.

A lazy Merced River passes outside the legal camping area.

Looking up a huge sugar pine that was spared burning with the rest just up the valley.

This pair of mule deer youngsters walking with their mom were not very concerned about all the people.

We found a site at the very edge of the legal boundary, thus reducing our neighbors slightly. We actually had two bear boxes to store away whatever we liked inside. Our packs would be very protected from marauding rodents for the night.

A Douglas's squirrel had supper with us.

Continue on to the next day ⇒


*photo album*




©2025 Valerie Norton
Published 12 Dec 2025