P H O T O S B Y C O U R T E S YJULY/AUGUST 2019
14 BACKPACKER.COMTHIS SEASON’S TOP TRIPS & PICKS
WALK THROUGH TIME.
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CA
This isn’t the Yosemite meadow you’ve heard about. It’s better.
Unlike Tuolumne and the park’s other famous greens, Dana
Meadows remains virtually empty even in summer. The reason?
It’s tucked away near the park’s east entrance, far from the
busy zones. Go at daybreak like photographer Robb Hirsch
did for ultimate solitude: Hop on the Mono Pass Trail and hike
east through Dana Meadows, where kettles formed from the last of the
Tuolumne glaciers 10,000 years ago fi ll with today’s runoff. Keep going
4 miles up 10,60 0 -foot Mono Pass , where views stretch to rust- colored
Bloody Canyon and the otherworldly spires that protrude from Mono
Lake. Turn around at infi nity pool-like Upper Sardine Lake for a 9 - mile
out-and-back dayhike. PERMIT None CONTACT nps.gov/yose