Hiking Four-Mile Trail FROM Glacier Point TO Yosemite Valley

I%26#39;m thinking about taking the tour bus one-way from Yosemite Valley to Glacier Point and then hiking the 4.8 miles down to the Valley.

Are there any forum members who have personally done this hike?

When is the earliest that Glacier Point Road might open?

Do you think that Glacier Point Road will be open by the last week in May this year?

If Glacier Point Road will be open before Memorial Day, what condition will the trail likely be in? Will it be dry enough to hike?

What does the trail look like? Is the trail narrow? If you step one foot off the trail, will you be in trouble?

Thanks for whatever help you can provide.

Hiking Four-Mile Trail FROM Glacier Point TO Yosemite Valley

The Four Mile Trail may still be closed even after the Glacier Point Road is open. Last week in May? Who knows?

The trail may still be icy and closed even after the road is open.

It%26#39;s not so narrow that one foot would drop you off the edge. After the snow melts, it%26#39;s not really dangerous or even scary, but if there%26#39;s four feet of icy snowpack still covering it here and there, you could slip off and tumble down the steep slopes if you try to cross such patches.

Hiking Four-Mile Trail FROM Glacier Point TO Yosemite Valley

Thanks for the information, Bayatuning.

We%26#39;re arriving in YNP on Memorial Day (Monday, May 28) and will be leaving on Saturday, June 2. I think for some of our hiking, we%26#39;ll have to decide when we arrive.

You should check with the park about the opening dates. For what it%26#39;s worth, last year year we did the hike on the Memorial Day weekend.

The trail is not difficult or scary. There are no significant ledges where you might fall off. It is very beautiful, but perhaps a little monotonous. Some of our group did not enjoy the hike because of the constant downhill.

Snow was not really an issue. If I remember, there may have been a little snow on the periphery at the top. It was slighhtly chilly at the top, then warm, then hot, as we descended.

The trail was not too crowded. Compared to the Mist Trail, for example, it is much less traveled. We would see other people every couple of minutes, rather than every couple of seconds like on the Mist Trail.

Most experienced hikers will tell you that it hurts much more going DOWN a trail than UP. True, you need to be aerobically fit to go up a trail, but it%26#39;s easier on the legs and knees. That said, it could be a muddy and/or icy trail.

Memorial Day weekend is one of the busiest in the park, so be prepared. One reason the Mist trail will be so much busier than the 4-mile trail is that has the fantastic payoff of taking you up alongside Vernal Falls, which will be at its peak that time of year. The picture in my avatar is of Vernal when we hiked there last June. While the trail was busy, it wasn%26#39;t crowded in the sense of having to avoid people or wait in some kind of line to get anywhere. And as you can see, we were even able to get pictures without people in them!

BTW, back to the 4-mile...this trail was originally created as a regular ';commute'; route for those who worked at the (now long gone) Glacier Point Hotel but lived down in the valley. I once read an account of someone whose father worked at the hotel, so as a young boy he would have to hike down the trail every day to go to school, then head back up again in the afternoon. Think about having to do that twice a day when you hit the trail!!