Heading to CA Possible to do a day trip to Yosemite?

Heading out to see my son in Monterey.  Thinking of driving to Yosemite for a day trip. Is this possible or should we plan more before heading out. We climb sport/TR up to 5.10c/d. Thoughts?

Allow at least 4 hrs to get to the Valley. Doable, but a long, tiring day. Don’t fall asleep on the way back. 

Depends on your goals and ambition - I've alpine started from San Francisco on a Saturday at 4:30AM and summited Mt. Conness by sunset moving at a pretty leisurely pace. If you're hitting the Valley in the weekend, traffic will probably block you if you arrive after 7-7:30. If it's a weekday, you might have a good time, just factor in rush hour traffic. Welcome to California ;)

I live in Monterrey and head out to Yosemite most weekends.. day trips are definitely doable but not ideal. leaving by 5am is a good timeline, go for it!

Others will need to chime in on TR areas in the Valley, i know there's not very many... (still nice being out there though)

Pinnacles would be a better option for Sport/TR (1 hour away). 

Do you have trad gear? that helps in yosemite

My friend and I didn't find Yosemite to be too friendly for weaker sport/TR climbers (us), but one thing we did find that was good if you have basic trad climbing skill/gear is to climb pineline (5.7) on El Cap. From there, there you can set up a top rope to access a couple nice climbs, up to 10d that we found quite enjoyable.

Otherwise as another user said, you'll probably have better luck elsewhere at like Pinnacles. San Luis Obispo has some nice stuff at Bishop Peak as well.

Day trip for sport climbing in Yos isn't gonna be that fun - you'll spend most of your day in car/dealing w/ logistics. It'll feel rushed.

Check out Pinnacles - 1hr 30min drive. Way more TR/Sport friendly, esp the East Side. On a week day you'll have the place to yourself.

If you have never been before, I would say its worth it. Bishop's peak and Pinnacles are ok, but not really destination climbs. I feel like even doing 1 route in Yosemite is special if you have never been, heck just seeing it is amazing

jasonhillva wrote: Heading out to see my son in Monterey.  Thinking of driving to Yosemite for a day trip. Is this possible or should we plan more before heading out. We climb sport/TR up to 5.10c/d. Thoughts?

Yosemite is a glorious place to be in the late-summer/fall. Don't rush it. Figure out a plan that lets you overnight at least 1 night. 

Sunnyside bench!

Tony Lobay wrote:Check out Pinnacles - 1hr 30min drive. Way more TR/Sport friendly, esp the East Side. On a week day you'll have the place to yourself.

As I discovered this past May, on the weekend, Pinnacles can get 100% not letting in any more cars full. I'd guess that it's highly dependent on arrival time. We got there around 11a on a Saturday and there was a minimum 2hr wait to get in the park.

I do this all the time. 4am leave Oakland gets you to the valley floor around 8am depending on how long you stop for gas/food. Just be aware that if you do his on a weekend, you need to choose your parking spot and forget about moving your car until it’s time to go home. On the weekends it can take more than an hour or two to make the loop. Add an extra hour and you’ll be in Tuolumne by 9am. 

Also, don’t take the Pine Line advice, you’ll be disappointed by the climbing to driving ratio. Glacier Point Apron is good for a day of cragging. Royal Arches is a good long easy day out. Reeds also is good for a day of cragging. A little harder but Yosemite Falls Amphitheater has quite a few fun climbs that are off the beaten path in an awesome setting. This time of year the lower canyon climbs like pat and jack or cookie or especially parkline slabs can be a bit hot. 

Isaac Leija wrote: I live in Monterrey and head out to Yosemite most weekends.. day trips are definitely doable but not ideal. leaving by 5am is a good timeline, go for it!

Others will need to chime in on TR areas in the Valley, i know there's not very many... (still nice being out there though)

Pinnacles would be a better option for Sport/TR (1 hour away). 

Did pinnacles last time I came to visit. Loved it just wish I had someone who knew the area. 

Thanks for all the advice. I think we are just gonna go as tourist this time. Also prob stay the night as the drive may be a bit much. I’ll take our gear and if the opportunity arises we will see. May hit up Pinnacles again.

Thanks all

kevin deweese wrote: Just be aware that if you do his on a weekend, you need to choose your parking spot and forget about moving your car until it’s time to go home. On the weekends it can take more than an hour or two to make the loop.

Beautiful spring saturday in May 2 years ago. Was at a conference in San Jose and went for a tourist weekend in the Valley via Oakhurst. Slacked off in the morning and didn't get to the south entrance until 10a. 45 minutes to get into the park. Went to Glacier Point for lunch - parking was 100% full and the final loop at the parking lot took 45 minutes to navigate. Then...
90+ minutes to get from Glacier Point Road to El Cap bridge/meadow. Continuing the 3.9 miles to Yosemite Village or Curry would have been another 2 hours. Add another hour to get back out of the park.

Pat and jack has plenty of sport craging to be had. And it's about 15-20 short of the over crowded valley 

Having moved to San Francisco in May I wanted to hike around the Valley Memorial Day weekend. I left San Francisco 3:30pm Sunday afternoon and got to Mariposa at 7:30 after hitting traffic in Livermore. I woke up at 5:15am check outta the hotel and starting driving. I got the village parking lot at 6:45am, hiked up to the bottom of the falls, got in my car and drove to the Nose. There were lots of parking spots. I got lost, found the bottom took some pics, realized how dangerous it was standing at the base and went back to the car. Left little before noon and hit a ton of traffic once I was outta the park. Got back about 5:30pm Monday.

 Was 90 degrees on the way back, then I hit Hayward, 85. Crossing the San Mateo bridge I watched the thermometer in the car go from 83 to 78. By the time I got home the thermostat read 70 with the windows open. Good thing the liberals can’t ruin the weather here like they have everything else. Of course conversatives are doing a pretty good job of ruining that everywhere.

I checked the "route finder" option here on Mountain Project and for some reason a number of routes that I've done strictly as bolted routes, are entered as trad routes.  Maybe that's because you can use supplemental gear. The below routes, I've done just with bolts, they may not fit everyone's standard of a sport climb:

At Church Bowl, Pole Position 10a.  From Pole Position you can easily get to the top of the trad routes at Church Bowl Lieback, Deja Thorus.
Energizer at 11a is well bolted, that's just a bit to the right.

At Pat and Jack's cliff: Trough of Justice, Knuckleheads, Boneheads, and a couple of easy routes to the right near Makayla's can all be done with just draws.
Both cliffs have less than 5 minute approaches.  Watch for poison oak at P&Js.

I can't remember lengths on these routes.  70 may work for some of them but in the Valley it's often mandatory to have a tag line for raps.

phylp wrote: I checked the "route finder" option here on Mountain Project and for some reason a number of routes that I've done strictly as bolted routes, are entered as trad routes.  Maybe that's because you can use supplemental gear. The below routes, I've done just with bolts, they may not fit everyone's standard of a sport climb:

Just because it has bolts doesn't make it a sport climb. Lots of old school routes in the Valley are exclusively bolt protected but are by no means sport (unless 5.9 crux moves 25' - 40' from the last bolt are sport to you). (Tons of discussion on this lurking in multiple forums here on MP)

jasonhillva wrote: Heading out to see my son in Monterey.  Thinking of driving to Yosemite for a day trip. Is this possible or should we plan more before heading out. We climb sport/TR up to 5.10c/d. Thoughts?

Labor Day weekend is not a good call for a visit to the Valley. And it is 5 hours from Monterey.

Just sayin'.

That is one reason I don't live in Carmel any more.

Go take the drive down to Big Sur and just groove on that part of CA.

It aint outdoors, but Pacific Edge Gym in Santa Cruz is my favorite gym in the Bay Area and then you're in Santa Cruz which has fun shoeless beach bouldering and surfing and all the other Gidget at the Beach type fun.