Cathedral Lakes

We just got back from a week long camping trip in the Eastern Sierras that was a perfect illustration of how people who move to California "for a few years" get lured into staying forever. Yosemite National Park may be the bait, but the treasures beyond are what reel you in permanently! I'm not sure if I'm a lifer yet, but boy am I tempted!

On this particular trip we hit up Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite, Mammoth Lakes and a few places in-between; a mixture of old favourites and new (to us) trails. And we wrapped up our week by driving home through the incredibly beautiful Sonora Pass.

Yosemite's high country is actually my favourite area of the park. But somehow, I never got around to hiking one of its most popular trails: Cathedral Lakes.

Lower Cathedral Lake

	Lower Cathedral Lake	Upper Cathedral Lake
Distance	5.2km one way from the trailhead	~800m one way from Lower Cathedral Lake
Difficulty	Moderate	Easy
Scenery	Amazing, 8/10	Equally Amazing, 8/10
Elevation	~2800m	~2900m

Upper Cathedral Lake

There are actually two lakes, an upper and a lower. The former has a nice rocky shoreline and the latter is grassy and more meadow-y. Both are incredibly beautiful and had it been warmer, I would have happily stayed all day!

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great; it was overcast for most of the day. But as Nick would say, it was "atmospheric" and it created a moody beauty of its own.

We had a very pleasant lunch break on the shores of Lower Cathedral Lake. And if you walk to the west end of the lake you'll get some amazing views of Tenaya Lake in the distance.

The Secret Lake!

After lunch we decided to climb the ridge on the south side of the lake just to see how high we could go. The views from up here were amazing and it revealed a secret lake that our guidebook had not mentioned! We will definitely explore this lake the next time we're in Tuolumne!