Backcountry Snowshoe Camping Eagle Peak Yosemite National Park Overview
I absolutely love Yosemite National Park, and it's where I first got into backcountry snowshoe camping. I have actually never been to Yosemite in a warm month. I have only been in the winter. It's great, the crowds are basically non-existent, so don't tell anyone my secret ;-)
Since my wife and I started backcountry camping at Yosemite, I have always had this unwritten goal of wanting to winter camp the South Rim, East Rim and North Rim around Yosemite Valley.
I have completed the South Rim twice with two different Dewey Point adventures. The first was with one of my best friends from the Marine Corps, and the second was my wifes introductory snow camping experience.
The East Rim out towards Half Dome and clouds rest, I had attempted once but we quickly had to turn around as a result of not being properly prepared (Trip Report). A couple years later my wife and I went back prepared and made it up towards Clouds Rest (Trip Report).
As for the North Rim... my wife and I got Covid and had to cancel that planning.... I got really out of shape. Then we got to this year and we were excited to finally tackle the North Rim! Our plan was to head up lower Yosemite Falls Trail, make camp near Eagle Peak and possibly check out El Capitan if conditions permitted.
Yosemite Falls To Eagle Peak Maps
Our planned route was to take Yosemite Falls Trail towards Eagle Peak. Spend the night and then explore El Capitan and Eagle Peak during the day, spend one more night at the same campsite and then hike out back down Yosemite Falls Trail.
The Caltopo map above can be viewed and downloaded here. Since our plans were fairly loose, and we really just wanted to get to the Eagle Peak area, I just linked to the Eagle Peak map. I will show more on how our actual route turned out in the trip report below.
Planning: Weather
Any hike in Yosemite can be dangerous all year round, but there is another level of danger in the winter. If you have read any of my previous winter Yosemite reports you know that I am fairly risk averse and have no issue with turning around. If I feel like conditions do not match my comfort, training, or the gear I have with me then I will re-evaluate my plans.
Normally we plan our Yosemite winter treks in February but we try to stay flexible as we track storms as our dates get close. We had planned for February this year as well, but the weather decided against us. With our vacations dates confirmed at both our different Jobs, we sadly watch a huge winter storm come into Yosemite over the exact weekend we had planned:
The weather report above in our new app (Don't Forget The Weather) is showing a 100% chance of snow on Saturday every hour of the day and 100% chance of snow most of Friday. That's not safe driving conditions let alone backcountry snowshoe camping conditions. So we decided to reschedule. About 8k feet they were expecting over 5 feet of snow.
Due to both our "normal" jobs we were not able to reschedule right away and April became our new target date. Luckily, due to the snow this year there was snow in April to snowshoe on ❄️ .
How did I know there was snow? I was checking daily on Caltopo weekly Satellite imagery and was able to snag this great image the wednesday before our trip. I wasn't too sure on the depth of the snow, but there was at least some snowpack.
The Sunday morning of our hike the weather report for Yosemite Valley was looking pretty good, light precipitation in the afternoon, and then a sunny Saturday and Sunday to enjoy the backcountry:
Planning: Permits
One of my favorite parts about Yosemite National Park in the winter is permits. They are all walk-ins and you do not need to reserve them prior. It makes it super flexible when planning, especially when you are watching constantly changing weather.
With our trip being pushed from February to April, I realized I had to make sure to look at the reservation policy and I am glad I did. If you are planning your own trip make sure to triple check because the reservation policies can change year to year. The policy for April 2024 was:
April 13, 14, 20, 21: Overnight hikes starting on these dates will require a reservation, with wilderness reservations available one week in advance on Recreation.gov. (Hetch Hetchy permits will only be available on a first-come, first-served basis at Hetch Hetchy Entrance.)
Our plan to start was on Sunday April 14th, so we had to get permits. Luckily not many people seem to be backcountry snowshoe camping so I was up at 7am getting permits the week before and had no issue snagging two, for my wife and I.
Gear List
Winter packing is always a bit heavier than non winter camping due to the extra layers, double sleeping pads (I go foam and inflatable), and winter safety gear. I am by no means an "ultralight" backpacker, and we were on the heavy side for this trip due to unknown conditions.
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For our "extra" items, we obviously had snowshoes for this trip which ended up being a smart decision. Postholing was no joke without snowshoes once we got out of Yosemite Valley. We additionally had crampons and ice axes as well. Ended up not needing them, conditions were really favorable for us on the way out of the valley. Since I have had to stop and turn around on my first clouds rest attempt, I didn't want to risk it. We also did use our ice axes on crampons when we were hiking out of the Valley for our second Clouds rest trip.
Here is a quick overview of my packing list:
If you want to check all the items I packed in detail you can check it out here. You might notice I am missing a sleeping bag that was packed in my wifes pack. The bear canister took up a lot of real estate in my pack.
Trip Report
Having had to push this trip back from February to April, I had a lot of emotions of if this trip was even going to happen at all this year. It was a rollercoaster of planning. Our last decision before leaving was what car to take to Yosemite... I have a Jeep Wrangler and my wife drives a Tesla Model 3. The Jeep obviously does much better in the snow, but my jeep has no working heat ( We live in san Diego 😆 ). The model 3 is not great in snowy conditions (ours is rear wheel drive), but it does have working heat and heated seats. We made a comfort based decision, got some snow chains and decided to drive the electric car. The savings in "fuel" cost offset the cost of one of our hotels on the way back home....or just paid for the snow chains 😂 .
With the car all packed we were off!
Since we were watching the weather the entire week before we didn't book any hotel rooms until the drive up. Usually we like to drive up and stay at the Yosemite Lodge the night before, so we can wake up and get a full day on the trail. Usually in February we have had good luck getting last minute reservations at the Lodge but no luck this time with the trip mid April. We ended up getting a room at the Yosemite View Lodge, just outside the park. The one plus side with this, was the Tesla Supercharger at the hotel.
The entire last hour or two of the drive to the hotel was pretty rainy and even snowing a bit at one point. It wasn't too bad and we never needed to put the snow chains on the car. I was slightly worrying about what the trail conditions would be in the morning on the Yosemite Falls Trail. Would we be dealing with a lot of snow on the steep switchbacks? Or would they just be a sheet of ice? Not much I could do though, I would have no idea until we got to the trail and assessed the conditions in the morning.
In our room, we made final preparations re-packing all our gear just right. I also waxed my Fjallraven Keb Trousers in preparation for the snowy conditions we would be experiencing once we hiked out of the valley. Fjallraven designs some of their gear to take wax, a natural way to add water resistance to clothing without harmful chemicals.
In the morning we woke up and the rain had subsided and we were off to Yosemite Valley! Despite all the preparations and research there is always a sense of what conditions are really going to be. I never want to cancel a trip, and I really needed some backcountry camping time. It's been a bit since we have been backpacking. As usual the first sights of Yosemite Valley as I drive in makes all my worries disappear. I was suddenly in my favorite place on earth and any nervous energy instantly changed to pure excitement!
In all my excitement I missed the parking lot we had to park at to check in and get our permits. As a result I had to drive all the way around the Yosemite loop one more time. I was a bit disappointed because I just wanted to get on the trail, but at the same time it's pretty scenic route, and this time we made a quick stop to take a panorama of what we would be hiking up.
On the second pass, I made the turn for the parking lot. We parked at the Village Store Parking Lot, and then walked on over to the Yosemite Wilderness Center to pick up our permits.
Since we usually come in February this was my first experience at the Yosemite Wilderness Center to pick up permits. We met three really nice rangers who gave us some great info on what to expect and gave me a quick quiz on what I should put into my bear canister, making sure we were going to place all items inside that have a smell and not just our food. So things like toothpaste and toothbrushes etc.
With our permit in our hands it was finally time to head out to the trailhead! For this backpacking trip we would be parking across the street from Camp 4 at the Yosemite Falls Parking Lot.
I break Yosemite Falls Trails into a couple of distinct sections. The start is tree covered, very steep with lots and lots of small switchbacks. You gain just under 1k feet in elevation in about three quarters of a mile. Once you start to poke out above the forest the trail starts to head North East towards Yosemite Falls. This section has a lot less switchback and steadily rises past Columbia Rock (Great Photo Spot), and brings you almost right up to Yosemite Falls. The third and final section brings you back to a lot of narrow switchbacks, having you gain about 1,500 ft of elevation in about 1.2 miles. Long story short, it's a lot of uphill with lots of amazing views!
As we started our hike it was a little brisk out with broken clouds, but we quickly warmed up as we were hiking uphill basically all morning. In the morning as we started we saw a small handful of day hikers beginning their own hikes to see Yosemite Falls. I was happy it wasn't too crowded.
Switchback after switchback slowly brought us higher and higher. As we slowly broke through the trees the views started to open up and we eventually started seeing some fantastic views of Half Dome in the distance, and the stunning Yosemite Valley floor below us.
At this point I was surprisingly feeling pretty good and strong. We still had a lot of hiking to do, but I was happy my wife pushed out out of the house the previous weekend and hike El Capitan in San Diego. It was a good way to get the legs ready for this hike.
Columbia Rock was the first real stop we made on our hike up. We took our packs off, sat down and ate some delicious Blue Diamond Almonds as we enjoyed the view and refueled for our next push.
We were very much enjoying the nice views and being off our legs for a little bit, but we had to get back on the trail as the cold started setting in. Every time I winter hike it always amazes me how much heat the body produces when it is working hard on a continuous uphill and once you stop all that heat quickly dissipates if you don't trap it in with the right layers.
Up to this point the trail had been fairly familiar to me. When me and my friend Matt had to cancel our Clouds Rest Trip a number of years ago we came to Yosemite Falls as a day hike. Without crampons and ice axes we got to a point where we could see Yosemite Falls and then had to turn around due to some deep snow and ice. As my wife and I got closer and closer to this section I was starting to worry what the trail conditions would be. The weather was a wintery mix the previous night where we stayed in El Portal and I expected to start seeing more snow and ice on the trail and we continued up to higher elevations.
As luck would have it, the trail continued to be clear of any ice or snow. At this point I was honestly starting to worry, would we have any snow to snowshoe on when we got to the top?
With the warm temperatures the week prior, there was definitely a lot of snow melt going on and as a result the falls were roaring!
From here on it was all new trail for me, and the conditions of the trail continued to be great. Above us, the rim of the valley was beginning to look a little cloudy which we were expecting from the weather report we looked at on Don't Forget The Weather before hitting the trail. My goal was to get high enough in elevation before the precipitation started. I would rather deal with snow than rain when it's cold out.
Although the trail was free of ice and snow still, it did get a little interesting at one or two parts as we started into the third section of Yosemite Falls trail. With all the snow melt there were a few sections of switchbacks that were becoming light mini waterfalls. These mini waterfalls were flowing pretty good, and we had to be really careful about each step because the rocks were slick and it was pretty steep at times.
Continuing up the switchbacks we basically were hiking into a cloud and visibility of the valley floor below was becoming less and less. We were getting very close to the rim of the valley at this point. The rim of the valley was my next milestone in my mind, as the trail would significantly become less steep. The rim of the valley was also where I was expecting us to start reaching some snow based on the satellite imagery we were looking at the day before.
Eventually it started to lightly drizzle. The drizzle quickly turned to flurries which eventually turned to light snow. There is something magical about hiking through some light snow, and I was just getting more excited with each step toward the rim of the valley.
Eventually the light snow got to the point where we decided to put some jackets on. We knew the trail would be getting less steep and we wouldn't be producing as much internal heat as a result. We found an awesome tree that sheltered us quite a bit from the snow where we de-packed and fetched our shells.
Soon after putting our shells on we ran into another couple who was coming down from backpacking the last few nights near Eagle Peak. They actually mentioned they were cutting their trip short by a night because one of their snow shoes actually broke. I felt bad they had to cut their trip short, but it was nice to hear there was plenty of snow for snowshoeing! They also gave us some great trail beta. With the warm temperatures and the snow melting the snow bridges over the creeks and rivers were starting to collapse.
On this trip we would cross a lot of these snow bridges, and we were thankful for the advice. We made sure to cross one at a time and tried our best to pick the best snow bridge to cross when there were options. Snow bridges can be very dangerous this time of year as the snow melts, and some of the drops into the creeks were easily 6+ feet.
We finally made it out of Yosemite Valley and the trail began to flatten out a little bit and we were suddenly in a forest filled with snow. Although the terrain leveled out a bit, we did still have a little bit of climbing before we made camp for the night near Eagle Peak. The change in scenery was beautiful seeing snow in every direction.
At first we didn't need our snowshoes as there was a little bit of a trail, but very quickly the trail began to disappear and we threw our snowshoes on. For a little bit there were some footprints to follow but we eventually were blazing a new trail through the snow!
Backcountry snowshoe camping is especially challenging once there are no "trails" to follow, which is one of the reasons why I love it so much. You really do feel like an explorer plotting and navigating your own path. Navigation can be especially difficult with no trail to follow so you need to be confident in your map skills. A lot of people bring GPS devices which are highly recommended, but always be prepared for that device to die or fail. I always bring a paper map and compass as a backup.
Reading maps in the snow is extra challenging as well so make sure you are extremely confident in your backcountry navigation skills. Terrain association is challenging because the snow can drastically throw off the landscape due to snow drifts. What may look fairly flat on the map, may be a bumpy mess of ups and downs. So a "flat" and "easy" plotted course may actually be an exhausting rollercoaster of ups and downs.
Protip if you are snowshoeing and now there will be a lot of climbing, get snowshoes with heel lifts. Our MSR Snowshoes (REI Affiliate Link) have heel lifts you can flip up before going up steep inclines and it's quite magical.
I mentioned at the start of the article that we had to push our February trip back and it was now April. One added benefit of this is the time change is advantageous. In the winter the days are much shorter and you do not have a whole lot of daylight. Since April is after the time change, we had a whole lot of daylight, so we never felt like we were racing the sun to make camp. If it was actually February we would have had to start much earlier, or would have had to make camp earlier and not have had as much time to pick an ideal location.
We had a couple locations that we marked on our map for potential campsites before setting on one on the edge of a clearing. When you find your campsite after hiking all day long your body just wants to sit down and rest and call it a day, but it's really just the start of a different type of work. We still had to dig out a pit for our tent, set up our tent, melt snow for water, and then eventually cook dinner all before calling it a day.
We only had one shovel so we took turns digging out a pit to help protect us a little more from the wind. As we set up camp I took off my snowshoes and instantly sunk up to my knee. So we tried our best to pack down the snow in our area to make it a little safer to walk around with our snowshoes off.
After setting up camp there was still a decent amount of daylight left so we decided to do a little bit of exploring towards Eagle Peak. We stashed our food in our bear can away from camp, and set out with our now very light packs and enjoyed a nice early evening hike through the snowy forest of Yosemite.
We ended up not going far at all, a round trip of only about .6 miles. As we hiked towards a view of Yosemite Valley we quickly realized we would not get a view at all due to the thick clouds we were hiking through. We were also a bit more tired then maybe we were admitting so we ended up turning around and heading back to camp for dinner.
Not counting our short little evening hike towards Eagle Peak here are our hiking stats for the day:
- 6.42 miles
- 3,661 ft elevation gain
- 5 hours 45 minutes of hiking (with breaks)
- 2,591 calories burned
Day 2: Exploring El Capitan and Eagle Peak
The first night probably fell into the low teens but we were comfortable in our little home away from home. I love waking up in the backcountry in the winter and seeing the little ice crystals on everything in the morning. Our plans for the day were pretty loose. We were going to explore up where we went last night to catch a glimpse of Yosemite Valley, then head towards El Capitan if conditions permitted and finally check out Eagle Peak before heading back to camp and calling it a day.
After a simple breakfast of pop tarts and beef jerky we were back out exploring the wonderful winter wilderness. Between the super light packs, and the early morning hard frozen snow, I felt like we were flying! Last night's short walk towards Eagle Peak was nice because we had a route of our own footprints to follow and didn't have to do as much route finding in the morning.
Unfortunately my nice camera lens had some fogging issues in the morning with the temperature changes so I didn't get a whole lot of pictures on the way.
We ended up finding a fantastic overlook of Yosemite Valley just East of Eagle Peak. The plus side to there was a really nice warm rock to sit on and warm up while we enjoyed the view and had a little more food.
After we enjoyed the view we headed towards El Capitan. This was a fun side adventure, with a lot of route finding and not much of a trail to follow. The snow was warming up very very fast and becoming a bit slushy in sections. Additionally there were a number of sections where the snow was totally melted. With the drastic changes of deep soft snow and then areas of zero snow, we had to swap in and out of our snowshoes multiple times.
We ultimately got to a section that was fairly steep and was a mix of wet builders and melting snow fields. I wasn't super comfortable crossing this section and it eventually led us up to creek crossing that was flowing pretty good with the snow melt. We were not too far from reaching El Capitan but we ultimately decided to turn around here and head back.
The temperatures were rising towards 50 degrees and it was getting warmer and warmer out. With large temperature swings and melting snow there is a lot of shifting that occurs. I wasn't sure how stable the snow fields were and was also thinking of loosening rocks and boulders. Maybe I was being overly cautious but, ultimately I think we made the best decision based on our skill level. I was also thinking about a truck we drove by on the way into the valley on our first day. As we drove in there was a truck on the side of the road with a massive rock lodged in its hood that clearly recently fell off a cliff. We were slightly disappointed because we really wanted to get to El Capitan, but the disappointment quickly faded when we eventually made it to Eagle Peak.
The route towards Eagle Peak was a fun snowshoe climb that ultimately led to some of the best views I have ever had of Yosemite Valley. There were some steep sections along the way but the snow was solid and we slowly made our own switchbacks back and forth as we made our way up towards the peak.
Near the top of Eagle Peak we found a wonderful rock to just relax on. We spent a portion of the day just enjoying the view and relaxing. After all this was a vacation, so I didn't feel too bad just sitting there enjoying the view. Additionally I did a lot of photography from here, which ultimately led to the large stitched together photo at the start of this article.
As we sat here enjoying an almost 360 degree of Yosemite, it was a great place to reminisce on our previous snowshoe adventures in Yosemite over the years. We could see across the valley to the southern rim where we enjoyed our first snowshoeing trip together at Dewey Point. We also had stunning views of what was either Vernal or Nevada Falls which we hiked past on our way to Clouds Rest. And of course just to the left of Half Dome we had spectacular views of Clouds Rest. As the clouds slowly rolled by at eye level, we even got to see a few take a "rest" at Clouds Rest.
Eventually it was time to head back down to camp to melt snow, cook dinner and spend one last night before heading back down to the valley in the morning. On the way back to camp we didnt take the direct path back and spent a little time just exploring the wonderful wilderness of Yosemite. It's not often you can say you have Yosemite National Park all to yourselves, and we wanted to enjoy every view as much as we could.
When we made it back to camp I had plenty of time to melt snow for dinner and top off all our water bottles for the trek back in the morning. While I melted snow, my wife got to work building a nice chair to enjoy our dinner together. Dinner the second night was much better having a real place to sit!
As we sat in our snow chair enjoying dinner, we had a wonderful view of the clearing in the forest we made camp by. As the sun slowly went down clouds started rolling in on the meadow and it was amazing watching the meadow and the trees in the fog with the constantly changing light. The best part was the fog didnt roll into camp, it was just in front of us in the meadow putting on a show for our final night in the backcountry.
Day 3 Back down to the Valley Floor
In the morning we packed up camp and talked about all the food and drinks we were going to get at The Ahwahnee. It was nice to know that we had an entire day of almost all downhill hiking. We made quick progress back to Yosemite Falls trail by following our first day's tracks and not having to route find.
Once we hit Yosemite Falls Trail we started seeing a lot of day hikers coming up to view the falls. Compared to our first day the weather was much nicer, so there were a lot more people. I think one of my highlights of this trip was of a young girl coming up the trail with her family. As she stopped to catch her breath she looked up at my wife and let out a loud, "Wow!". I think my wife inspired another future backpacker!
