Backpacking Yosemite - Tuolumne Meadows to the Valley

This trip started as an idea for a Half-Dome day hike, and turned into a three day trip from Tuolumne Meadows to the Valley Floor via the Cathedral Lakes Trail (the Cathedral lake pictured below).Day 1: My good friends, Dave and Larry, caught the hiker's bus in the valley for the quick trip to Tuolumne Meadows and the Cathedral Lakes trailhead. We started at 10:30am with the goal of reaching the Sunrise High Sierra Camp (H.S.C.), 7.3 miles and 2,000 feet away, by the evening. With a 45# packs, we moved quickly and made the H.S.C by 5:30pm. A spring water spigot and latrines made this camp a near luxury experience.

Day 2: We were all up before dawn and had breakfast just as the sun crested the mountains and lit up the valley. We hit the trail at 8:30am for the 9.4 mile hike to the next stop, a small camp just to the north of Half Dome. The trail wound through alpine lakes which provided us with a nice place to swim during breaks. four miles into the hike, the trail turns sharply higher, leading us to Cloud's Rest peak at 9,900 ft. This peak offered amazing views of Yosemite, from Half Dome and the Valley to Tuolumne Meadows. This experience was far better than simply climbing Half Dome for a day.
The 3,000 ft. descent from Cloud's Rest was painful on the knees, but were arrived at our new camp by 6:00pm. The camp's resources were limited to a small stream, from which we filtered over ten liters of water for drinking and cooking. Building a fire was easy - a single match ignited the wood, which was done dry after a long hot summer.

Day 3: We left at 8:00am to reach Half Dome before the crowds, but soon realized that we were about 4 hours too late. The cables to the top of Half Dome were packed solid with hikers of all levels of ability. Some people found that going up the cables was far easier than descending. These folks froze in place, creating a massive traffic jam. It took us 45 minutes to climb the cables. The views were great, as they always are from here, but I was happy to descend and be off the cables. (Below: Larry and Dave descend the cables).
We packed up camp and headed back to the Valley floor and the car. This was out longest hiking day with over 11.5 miles of trail. We dropped 5,000 ft in elevation, which also helped make this the most difficult day. But, we arrived at the car before nightfall and in good spirits. Looking back on this experience, I would highly recommend the Cloud's Rest peak to any and all hikers. It was one of the best experiences I've had in Yosemite.