Yosemite national Park Special Edition - Backpacking Cathedral Range Backpacking+the+Cathedral+Range+-+Yosemite+Nationa | Page 5

Backpacking O Trail in Yosemite National Parks Cathedral Range
Leaving Echo Lake on our trip early in the morning was simply peaceful as the forest and meadow seemed to
still be a sleep. To exit towards Cathedral Lakes we headed North West through the forest edge below Echo
Peaks and followed the creek /meadow up and around to the JMT just above Upper Cathedral Lake. Cathedral
Peak appears son after we started hiking and gave us a great directional comfort that we were indeed headed
the right direction and we could afford to get out on the edge of the meadow to save our socks which were
now getting soaked.
Upper Cathedral Lake is one of my favorite places in Yosemite and we had to stop for a relaxing almost
meditative visit on the West shore line as many fish (most fairly large size) continually splash about on the
Western shore line. A short hike up the Northern face to peak over at South Cathedral lake and a stop to refill
water bottles and we were off , headed down the JMT and back into the mainstream of life. Crazy in less than a
mile we saw 5-x more people than we had scene in the last three days.. the JMT to Cathedral lakes is a very
popular hike.
Backpacking Off Trail in Yosemite National Parks Cathedral Range