Backcountry Yosemite - includes related articles on Yosemite National Park

Campgrounds. Crane Flat (166 sites) is open May to October; Hodgdon Meadow (105 sites) is open all year. Both require Ticketron reservations ($10 per site) from May to October. For information on camping west of the park in Stanislaus National Forest, call or stop in at the Groveland District Ranger Station, 8 miles east of Groveland on State Highway 120; (209) 962-7825.

Other lodging. The Park Service (see box on page 112) can send you a list of accommodation outside the park--but generally situated along approaches to it.

HEART OF THE PARK

As you climb higher, magnificent red firs, lakes, views, curious marmots

Leaving the Crane Flat area, the Tioga Road climbs gradually to about 8,000 feet, an elevation it straddles for many miles as it winds eastward from one watershed to the next. This middle region of the park is home to the somber but hauntingly beautiful red-fir forest. Few plants can grow in the shade of these magnificent conifers; nor can other trees compete to enter the exclusive stands that red firs often form. Muir claimed the red fir possessed "a richness and symmetry and perfection of finish not to be found in any other tree in the Sierra." Besides passing through miles of pure red-fir forest, travelers on this segment of the Tioga Road will also see other species that flourish at the same general elevations. Interpretive signs at pull-outs along the road identify distinctive features of various trees and explain conditions that encourage their growth. Examples include the hardy Western juniper, which seems to grow out of bare rocks, and quaking aspen (the fall-color favorite), which requires a dependable supply of ground water. Half a mile past Porcupine Flat Campground, a short nature trail introduces you to the most common conifers seen along the highway; among them is the lodgepole pine, a scaly-barked tree that keeps company with other species at most elevations within the part, but truly dominates in the lofty subalpine region. Conditions that favor one plant species over another are not always nature's doing. Years of fire suppression by human managers can allow certain trees (such as white fir) to take over a forest that would otherwise be mixed or dominated by a species that needs fire to complete its reproductive cycle. Since 1970, prescribed burns have been par of a Park Service program to compensate for the effects of previous fire suppression; besides reestablishing a more natural competitive environment, these controlled fires remove the buildup of deal plant material and undergrowth that could fuel large, catastrophic fires (like the cones in Yellowstone in 1988). You can see the effects of extensive prescribed burns along the Tioga Road as it climbs eastward from Crane Flat.

White Wolf: meander through meadows, day-hike to lakes Originally a small resort and way station on the Old Tioga Road, but now a mile removed from the modern highway, White Wolf still serves as a mid-elevation base camp for visitors staying in the tent-cabin lodge run by Yosemite Park and Curry Co., or in the adjacent Park Service campground. You can enjoy the area's natural appeal without going any farther than the flowery meadow across the road from the lodge, where clusters of yampah often form a lacy sea of white. Two small lakes are popular destinations for day-hikes from White Wolf. Harden Lake is 3 miles northwest, via the Old Tioga Road along the Middle Fork of the Tuolumne River; the lake is between two ridges of glacial deposits embedded with granite boulders. Swimming can be enjoyable here late in the summer, though the lake's level drops as its temperature rises. Lukens Lake, another glacier-dammed lake, is 2 1/4 miles from White Wolf in the opposite direction, on a gently ascending trail. A shorter trail (1 mile) also leads to Lukens Lake from a pull-out on the Tioga Road about 2 miles east of the White Wolf junction. Backpackers interested in an uncrowded, mid-elevation route can continue west past Harden Lake through red-fir and Jeffrey pine forest to Smith Meadow, 8 1/2 miles from White Wolf and 1,600 feet lower. From the meadow, it's a 1 1/2-mile ascent to the summit of Smith Peak--at 7,751 feet, the highest point for miles around, and a spot with superb views (especially of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, to the east). If you'd like to forgo the footwork but still see the area, the park concessionaire's White Wolf stables offers 2-hour guided rides to Lukens or Harden lakes and half-day and all-day rides to other locations; see page 112 for details.