One-half mile below the grove the main road passes beneath the rustic gateway which marks the boundary between Yosemite National Park and the Stanislaus National Forest. There are two possible auto camps in the next mile, but neither are very good. Bearing westward the road follows down the canyon of North Crane Creek. Good camp sites will be found at the crossing about two miles below the park line. Hogdon Ranch, a little more than a mile further, is another good place to camp. At this abandoned cattle ranch an old road branches to the left. It is impassable because of washouts. A mile and a half further along the main road is Carl Inn, a mountain summer resort on the South Fork of the Tuolumne River. Accommodations are excellent. Gasoline and oil may here be obtained. There are many fine camp sites in the vicinity and fishing is fair. One may obtain saddle or pack animals at the hotel for trail trips in the region.
Just west from the hotel is a main road junction. The Big Oak Flat Road to Chinese Camp, Knights Ferry and Stockton continues down the South Fork, while our road crosses the New England Bridge and bears northward. One mile takes us to another junction where the Hetch Hetchy Road (Road Trip V) branches to the left. The Tioga Road turns eastward, ascends a rather steep grade thru a fine forest of pine, cedar and oak, and in 4.2 miles again enters the park at Aspen Valley Ranger Station. Motorists should stop and register. A government telephone is here available. There are excellent camping places in the vicinity and a good spring about two hundred yards northwest of the ranger cabin.
Two miles inside the park is Aspen Valley, another abandoned cattle ranch. The long meadow offers a delightful camp. The Carlin Trail, which is used chiefly by cattlemen, branches to the westward at this point and makes a rough descent to Ackerson Meadow six miles distant. Leading southeast is a trail to Tamarack Flat on the Big Oak Flat Road. Over most of its six miles it is so brushy as to be almost impassable and it is now little used. About one mile north of Aspen Valley the seldom used "Packers' Trail" begins at the left of the road and bears northward toward Hetch Hetchy. From Aspen Valley eastward good camping places are so numerous that several will be passed each hour. They will therefore not be mentioned in the following text.
Our road now ascends Long Gulch, passes over a low divide, and in 4.2 miles crosses the Middle Fork of the Tuolumne River. This is an attractive auto camp but horse feed is scarce. The stream is well stocked with rainbow and eastern brook trout. We now follow along the well-wooded banks of the Middle Fork and in about three and a half miles, where the road makes a big bend toward the southeast, we find the beginning of the trail to Harden Lake, Hetch Hetchy, and the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne.
The beautiful little Harden Lake (Alt. 7575) is only one mile distant by trail. It is a most attractive place to lunch and the round trip can easily be made in less than one hour. From points just north of the lake a most comprehensive view of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne is revealed. Harden Lake contains no trout.
White Wolf, some two miles beyond the Harden Lake Trail Junction, is one of the many fine meadows which our road now traverses. The old Ten Lakes Trail shown on the U.S.G.S. maps as leading eastward from this point has been superseded by the new Ten Lakes Trail up Yosemite Creek. The old blazes may be followed eastward two and a half miles to Lukens Lake (Alt. 8450), a charming little mountain lakelet surrounded by a park-like forest. It has not yet been stocked with trout.
About three miles beyond White Wolf the Yosemite Creek Trail (Trail Trip 11) branches to the right (south). Yosemite is ten miles distant by this excellent trail. Passing several small meadows, one of which is Dark Hole, we descend in about two miles to Yosemite Creek Ranger Cabin. The station is connected by telephone to Yosemite. From here a good trail bears to the southwest and joins the main Yosemite Creek Trail one and a half miles below. Good camp sites are numerous in the vicinity and at the Yosemite Creek Crossing, about a quarter of a mile eastward, the new Ten Lakes Trail follows up the east bank of the creek. Our road now ascends about two and a half miles of heavy grades, finally passing over a flat divide and descending almost imperceptibly to the large meadows at Porcupine Flat, an excellent camping place. One mile further the Yosemite Falls Trail branches to the right and leads southwest five miles to Yosemite Point.
In another mile Snow Creek is crossed. Fishing is fair down stream. Snow Flat, two and a half miles further, is an especially good place to camp. It is the usual base camp for the ascent of Mount Hoffman (Alt. 10,921), three miles to the northwest.
May Lake (Alt. 9400) is about one mile north of the road by a plainly blazed but rough trail which climbs about 500 feet en route. Beautifully set in the rugged glacial amphitheatre at the east shoulder of Mount Hoffman, which towers imposingly above, it offers one of the most attractive side trips of the region. As a campsite it is unsurpassed. In the days when troops were guardians of the park this was the officers' private fishing lake—and fishing is most excellent. It was stocked with Loch Leven trout in 1908, with eastern brook in 1908 and 1917, and with rainbow in 1908 and 1913.
From Snow Flat the road rises abruptly for a short distance, then descends 800 feet in the next three miles to Lake Tenaya. Near a sharp bend in the road about one mile from the lake, a trail to the right (Trail Trip 5) leads to Yosemite via Mirror Lake.