Yosemite Backpacking Trips
Backpacking - High Tour - Reviews
I wanted to thank you for a fabulous trip again this year. We all loved it and loved our guides Katie and Joel. We will be back next year..maybe even more than one trip!
- Lulu Al-Sabah, England July, 2006
Thank you for the wonderful trip to Yosemite last week! I had a great time...it was just perfect! The other couple was friendly and Jan was a super guide. Basically, it was the perfect solution to what I needed. A good dose of fresh air, beautiful views and peace and quiet. I just got my pictures back and can't believe I was just there! I will continue to share the great experience with my friends....and hopefully you will get more customers through them. Again, thanks for accommodating me. I had a fantastic time!
- Debra, June 2002
We just wanted to tell you the great time we had on our trip in the High Sierra. Our guide Tanaya was excellent! She really made it fun for us rather inexperienced hikers. She did a great job teaching us things not only about hiking and camping but also about the history of the area, different trees and things like that. The food was really good and the weather was nice. We still are really excited about climbing Madera peak. We got a little tired about half way up but Tanaya gave us some encouragement to keep us going and we did it! We are already thinking about doing it again this spring. We have our friends wanting to go now too, after telling them about it and them seeing the pictures and all. Please tell Tanaya we really appreciate everything and hope to see her on the next trip.
- Troy Alton and Jafar Miar, September 2000
Our backpacking trip was highlighted by spectacular scenery and an arduous day hike to the top of 10,500 foot Madera Peak, which we scaled like mountain goats. After about three hours, we crested the summit, had a quick veggie burrito, took a roll of pictures, and headed down. Later that night, as we toasted our feet by the open fire, the bota bag of white wine washed down yellow fin tuna with rice and eased our sore bodies. Thanks!
- Gentry Magazine , June 1997
We all had such a great time on the trip. It was nice to get out of the city and smell the fresh air, see the stars and to see nature at it's purest form. It really put things into perspective. I think we all made some decisions based on our time spent in the Sierra.
- Brenda Wicklund, June 1996
A backcountry hike in the Sierra; behold mountains and quiet pools, twigs, clouds, canyons, stones--great vistas and intimate realities. --Ansel Adams
As first morning light touches a mountain lake in the Ansel Adams Wilderness of the High Sierra, the stillness is almost imperceptibly disturbed. Moths and mayflies begin to fly low over the water, a trout jumps, breaking the mirrored lake, sending small waves to the shore where a mallard gathers her ducklings for a morning paddle. Electric blue dragonflies buzz through the reeds around the lake, and it is at this moment that you understand why you seek wilderness. There is something irresistible about waking to an early morning breeze, far from any road, with everything you need to survive within arm's reach. One doesn't need any unusual skills to go backpacking. Anyone in good health, and able to hike and carry a pack can experience the High Sierra--that realm of high meadows and granite peaks above 8,000 feet.
Last summer I explored this area with Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides, based in Bass Lake. SYMG lets the clients set the pace. They provide permits, maps, a lot of hearty food, and equipment such as packs, sleeping bags and pads, and tents.
On a three-night trip I was joined by six women who had never before backpacked. We met Thursday night at the Pines Resort at Bass Lake. The next morning we drove to the trailhead, two miles below the edge of the Ansel Adams Wilderness. After lunch, time for digestion, and leg stretches, we hefted our packs onto our backs. Our guides' packs were brimming with all the pots, and pans, and the ingredients for some backcountry meals: pasta, olive oil, garlic, and fresh vegetables, burritos with the works, pancake mix, and heaps of fresh blueberries.
A few minutes along the trail we began to see lupine and shooting stars. A few hundred feet higher, the pines and red firs parted to frame the sharp peaks of the Minarets, and Mt. Ritter and Banner Peak 15 miles to the east. We happily used the view as an excuse to pause and catch our breath in the thin cool air. The air was breezy. We walked and chattered about the scenery or how our packs or our shoes felt, stopping frequently to rest. We passed lodgepoles and white pines, and made our way onto the polished granite that defines this landscape. Three miles and a thousand feet higher we stood at the rim of Jackass Lake, on a ridge with a 180 degree view of pine-filled canyons that carry the San Joaquin River below.
The first night around the campfire, under a waxing moon, the tenderfoots rubbed their feet , and recanted the tribulations of their first backpack-hike. Someone asked, "Would you do this again next year?" The answer was a hesitant "maybe." but by the second night around the fire they were busy planning a return trip.
Early on the next day, we set off for a day hike to the next lake, a pristine lake filled with clear, sparkling blue water, at 9,300 feet above sea level. We ate lunch on a ridge jutting out above the Ansel Adams Wilderness. It was from the top of Mt. Ritter, directly east across the wilderness, that Muir described the area as "a sea of gray granite waves dotted with lakes and meadows, and fluted with stupendous canyons that grow steadily deeper as they recede in the distance." It seemed at that moment, the most exquisite way to spend a Saturday afternoon: looking through the clear air at mountain tops one hundred miles to the south along the Sierra Crest. Some of us continued to the summit of Madera Peak, at 10,509 feet above sea level to really cap off the day. Sunday, on the trail back to the cars my mind was on the showers and hot tub at the Pines in Bass Lake. Standing on top of a mountain or at the end of a trail and filling your lungs with cool clean air, the hard part slips from your mind as you revel in the view, the air and the accomplishment.
- Motorland Magazine, May/June 1995
I'd like to express my appreciation to you for a wonderful backpacking trip.. As an introduction to backpacking, it would be hard to beat the four day I spent there. Your friendliness, leadership,and great cooking made for a great trip. I know that all member of the gorup felt the same way. The lasting benefit that I will take from the tour will be the confidence to start to go backpacking myself. I look forward very much to another SYMG trip and will be sure to recommend you to my friends.
- Chris Saul, August 1995
If you have experienced this trip with the guides of SYMG, you can submit your review for inclusion here!