Camping for Cathedral Peak

Hey guys, coming to Yos for the first time and are looking for some insider tips. We are spending the first day doing and climbing whatever, but really want to climb Cathedral Peak the next day. What would you recommend for best camping option nearest to Cathedral? Just looking to be able to get an early start and be in the vicinity. Any other first timer tips you can throw my way would be awesome! Thanks everybody and safe climbing!

Just camp in the Tuolumne campground the night before. It's easily done in a day.

If the campground is full there are several campgrounds E of Tuolumne on the way down to Lee Vining. Also there's a few places to bivy if along HWY 120 outside of the park if all else fails.

The best option is of course to stay in one of the campgrounds in the park, with Tuolumne Meadows being the closest one. Chances are they will all be booked, though, so you will need to look at alternatives. Wilderness permits for that area require that you hike farther in than Cathedral before you're allowed to camp, so I don't recommend that either.

My preferred option is to drive East out of the park, up and over Tioga Pass. You will then be in National Forest land, and it is fairly easy to find a good spot for dispersed camping. There are several spots along Saddleback Lake Road. It adds some driving time in the morning, but not much, and the hike to Cathedral is very short.

Have a safe and fun climb. Cheers!

Only half of the campsites in Tuolumne Meadows are booked by reservation. If you queue up before the office opens in the morning you should be able to get one of the remaining half. You'll likely get put on a wait list and have to go back after check-out time to close the deal, but that's not such an obstacle if you weren't planning on doing anything big that day. Get on the trail by 6:00 a.m. at the latest if you don't want to wait in line at the bottom of the buttress.

You can climb up from anywhere at the base. Waiting in line is a choice. When I did it we started at 8 am and got back to the car by 2 pm. Some people do it before going to work, so don't limit yourself.

Camping as stated is an option.

You could look into backpacking in the day before. Legally, you'd have to camp pretty far from the base though. A couple miles south or east perhaps. Wilderness Center would know.

I agree the first time we did it we started from the TH at 1pm and were topped out before sundown and never had to wait in line. It's a fun and beautiful climb.

Thanks everybody for the speedy replies! Would have been ideal to get a Meadow campsite. Unfortunately didn't plan out the trip early enough so we camped in Groveland. We did the SW Buttress and didn't start until 5:45! Lots of wind and great climbing, but damn did we misunderstand the descent! We ended up wandering the NE face for a total of 5 hours after a 1:45am top out before finally discovering an old trail that got us down! Anybody else screwed this up as badly as us? Awesome climb, wish we hadn't botched getting down but chalk up it up as a scary life experience of ropeless traversing back and forth before finally finding a way down. Can't wait to make it back! (With better beta comprehension). Thanks again and climb safe/smart.

Don't feel bad. I arrived at the base one early morning and saw this couple walk around the corner from the left looking like shit. They walked off the wrong way down towards Cathedral Lakes and spent the night out there.

I've walked off the backside (west slope) down to the JMT/Cathedral Lakes just to mix it up - not ideal but doable.

Are you sure you were wandering on the NE face or was it the west or northwest face?

I'm surprised you didn't see anyone else walking off the correct descent. Glad you made it out and had a good climb.

After regaining some energy and taking time to examine an aerial topo you are right we were coming down the West face/slope toward the John Muir trail that got us back to our car at the trailhead. Shows how disoriented we ended up getting. During the day it wouldn't have been as bad but in the pitch blackness it was borderline terrifying. I will say that we somehow came across what must have been an old trail, before the restoration efforts for that slope kicked in, right before the sun came up so we were gonna make it, but the day's illumination provided some much needed confirmation and relief from the enveloping darkness, physical and mental. There had been one group that we spoke with from the base as we started the last pitch but other than them saying they hadn't found any rap station that was all the info they shared. Either way still alive and motivated to climb another day!

Tioga Lake does not do reservations.

Tuolumne does. You'll need to get a username and password for this site, depending upon your dates you may be out of luck for a reservation - but read above for walk ins.

Erick Valler wrote:We did the SW Buttress and didn't start until 5:45! Lots of wind and great climbing, but damn did we misunderstand the descent! We ended up wandering the NE face for a total of 5 hours after a 1:45am top out before finally discovering an old trail that got us down!

Am I reading this correctly? Nice enthusiasm, and glad that it turned out well, but why would you start the route two hours before the sun goes down? Even if one is familiar with the descent, this seems like a recipe for trouble.

The descent is not hard nor convoluted and there's ample beta online. Difficult to understand how anyone could screw it up for hours...

Erick Valler wrote:After regaining some energy and taking time to examine an aerial topo you are right we were coming down the West face/slope toward the John Muir trail that got us back to our car at the trailhead. Shows how disoriented we ended up getting. During the day it wouldn't have been as bad but in the pitch blackness it was borderline terrifying. I will say that we somehow came across what must have been an old trail, before the restoration efforts for that slope kicked in, right before the sun came up so we were gonna make it, but the day's illumination provided some much needed confirmation and relief from the enveloping darkness, physical and mental. There had been one group that we spoke with from the base as we started the last pitch but other than them saying they hadn't found any rap station that was all the info they shared. Either way still alive and motivated to climb another day!

If you climbed Cathedral on 8/7, I was the one yelling at you from the base at about 11:15pm. Check your PMs. Glad to hear you made it out okay!

Just remember. Go to the notch on the right after attaining the summit and descend the same side as you climbed up. Cathedral Lakes side is much longer.

You can easily hike the ridge north as well. Probably how Muir did it.

Oh wow - when I read your post about the time you summited, I just read 1:45 and thought PM. No wonder you didn't see anyone else walking off. :)

NateGfunk wrote:The descent is not hard nor convoluted and there's ample beta online. Difficult to understand how anyone could screw it up for hours...

Easy to do when you're doing it for the first time in the dark.

More on topic about camping in Tuolumne, they have gotten less aggressive about cancelling sites for no shows, particularly because you can have a pretty late arrival time. In late June, we were able to score a site the day of, so here's the drill. We got in line at 6 a.m. (the ranger said the line starts forming at 5 or earlier, and he was right--we were probably the seventh or eighth group in line). When they came out (I think at 8 or 9 a.m.) they said they didn't know how many spots were available, so they handed out numbers and told us to come back at 2 p.m. We did and, even though there were a couple parties ahead of us who did not come back, we got the third to the last spot. That was it, about 8 spots. The night before we had tried to score a site in one of the campgrounds along 120, including down near Lee Vining, and they were completely full with RVers who looked like they'd been there a while. In a pinch, find a flat pullout along 120 (outside of the park) and sleep in your car. We saw folks who even pitched tents. If you're just there to crash and are leaving first thing, no one seems to bother you.

A long time ago, I got in line at the desk, was handed a tag with a number, drove over there only to find it occupied. I wasn't even polite, I walked up to the guys and said "leave my campsite" - we were four they were two - they packed up and left.

Has anyone backcountry camped at Cathedral Lake and then done the SE Buttress? What's the approach like from the lake? 

It's cruiser

mikehilbert wrote: Has anyone backcountry camped at Cathedral Lake and then done the SE Buttress? What's the approach like from the lake? 

Spent three nights at upper cathedral lake. Climbed cathedral peaks from camp one of the days. 

If you can climb 5.9 do Eichorn's Pinnacle cut the approach way down