The old El Capitan Trail to Gentry branches to the west about one-third of a mile north from the summit and continues thru very brushy country along the north rim to Ribbon Creek, about one mile distant. From this point if one is a good woodsman and brush-fighter, the old blazes may be followed thru a three-mile tangle to the Gentry Checking Station on the Big Oak Flat Road. Yosemite is then 8.1 miles distant by road.
TRAIL TRIP 10
YOSEMITE TO TEN LAKES via YOSEMITE CREEK
(One way 17 miles—7 hours)
The recently constructed Ten Lakes Trail makes the exceptionally beautiful Ten Lakes Basin and Grant Lakes easily accessible from Yosemite. The round trip is too long to be attempted in one day. The lakes offer most attractive sites for a permanent camp, and several of them are well stocked with trout.
We follow the Yosemite Falls Trail (Trail Trip 3) from its beginning just west of Yosemite Lodge to the trail junction at the top of the upper zigzags. Here the Yosemite Point and North Dome Trail turns right and crosses a small creek. Those who have not visited the top of the upper fall should by all means turn aside, for it is but a short distance—less than five minutes' walk. Our main trail continues straight ahead paralleling without crossing Yosemite Creek thru a beautiful mixed forest where the tree-lover will find a few specimens of western white pine. At about one-quarter mile (4.0 miles from Yosemite) the Eagle Peak Trail (Trail Trip 9) branches to the left. We follow up the west margin of the creek, generally thru dense forests, but emerging at times to clatter over polished and striated granite pavements where monster mountain junipers grotesquely spread their gnarled branches. Great "potholes" have been formed by the stream where it rushes over the smoothly planed bedrock. At a point 3.7 miles above the Eagle Peak Trail junction the main trail continues to the left up the west fork (Trail Trip 11). Our trail, which turns right and keeps on up the main fork canyon, is considerably less traveled. In the next 2.3 miles we pass over rough granite up the west bank of the main stream to the Yosemite Creek Ranger Station on the Tioga Road. There is here a government telephone. Good camp sites will be found at the crossing a quarter of a mile east of the cabin and fair feed upstream. Fishing is fair to poor. There are better camps, feed and fishing about three miles upstream.
At the Tioga Road the trail is indistinct. We cross the bridge and follow up the east bank of Yosemite Creek on the main road until the blazes are sighted. The first third of a mile is easily traversed, but the following one and a quarter miles are rough. About three miles above the bridge is a meadow with abundant pasturage. This is a good campsite and fishing is fair upstream. In the next three miles the trail gradually ascends to an elevation of 9200 feet, leaving Yosemite Creek and passing over the flat divide into the Tuolumne River drainage. At the summit one can leave the trail and walk southeast 1.5 miles to Grant Lakes (Alt. 9500). These are two beautiful mountain lakes, the upper one being in a rugged cirque with sheer walls rising above at the east. Both were stocked in 1917 with rainbow and eastern brook trout.
The Ten Lakes Trail continues north over the tableland and descends 600 feet by switchbacks into the Ten Lakes Basin (Alt. about 9400), seven miles from the Tioga Road. Here are many ideal camp sites and good forage except early in the season. The lakes were stocked with eastern brook trout in 1908, 1913, 1915 and 1918 with Loch Leven in 1908, and with steelhead in 1918. Fishing is reported excellent. A walk of one and a half miles due north takes us without climbing to the summit of Grand Mountain (Alt. 9350), from which is obtained a most impressive view of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne and Muir Gorge just below. A still finer and more comprehensive panorama may be had from the summit of Colby Mountain (Alt. 9700) on the canyon rim 2.5 miles northeast from Ten Lakes. For this short side trip one should leave the trail just before its descent into the basin and follow northward on the ridge that juts out into the main Tuolumne Canyon.