Yosemite / Tuluomne Grove & Mirror Lake

Day 1 in Yosemite National Park | Hiking Tuolumne Grove Trail | Hiking the Mirror Lake Trail | Camping in Upper Pines Campground | December 2025

We had finally arrived at the second big goal for this road trip: Visiting Yosemite National Park for our first time ever! While we knew that visiting in December would pose its limitations, and could even be risky with winter weather, we were hoping that the positive side to traveling in the off season would make this a great first visit. We were already starting off strong with scoring last minute campground reservations for two nights in the valley, and the forecast was actually better than we could have hoped for a December visit — with daytime highs nearing 60, and clear skies, nothing like the fog filled valley had been and would continue to be throughout the month!

And with traveling in the off season came the biggest perk of all: greatly diminished crowds compared to what we would have seen in the summer. I was shocked when we were able to drive right up to the entrance station with absolutely no line in the late morning!

Our first stop in the park was to hike the Tuolumne Grove Trail. We were excited to see the giant sequoia trees, but were also worried that we were potentially spoiling Sequoia National Park for ourselves. As it turned out, there were only 8 sequoias on this trail, which just gave us a tiny taste of what a full forest of these grand trees could look like. The trail was about 3 miles round trip, following a historic road down to a short loop around the trees.

Next, we began our drive from around 6,000 feet down to 4,000 on the Valley floor. We got our first ever glance into the valley and of Half Dome. I imagined that Tunnel View coming from the South would have possibly been a better first view than this one, but I had seen plenty of pictures of Tunnel View before and had never seen this exact angle before, which made it the perfect first look for us. We descended into the valley, and followed signs heading towards the end of the developed valley where our campsite was. Driving through the valley was so exciting — seeing so many iconic rocks, cliffs, and waterfalls we had seen pictures of and dreamed of seeing with our own eyes for so long, all right there in front of us, even larger than we had imagined! And best of all, when I got my first glance of Yosemite Falls, the sun was casting a rainbow around it, showing me that Charlotte was with us in the valley.

We entered the campground, got our bear safety talk from a ranger, and set up the van in our campsite. There are only two loops of the Upper Pines Campground open during the winter, but it was still way more people than we had camped around in a long time.

One thing we enjoyed the most about our experience camping here was that once we parked the van, we didn’t have to drive again until it was time to leave thanks to the park’s bus system. Seriously, the park has better public transportation than some cities! We didn’t end up using it that night since the only other trail we wanted to hike today was within walking distance from the campground, but it was very helpful in allowing us avoid traffic and parking the next day, especially in the busier areas.

For our first hike in the valley, we hiked the Mirror Lake loop trail, which was 6.5 miles; longer for us since we started and ended at our campsite. The trail was mostly flat and we had a new rush of adrenaline thanks to being in such a beautiful place. There was a small amount of water in the lake, but it did perfectly mirror Half Dome and the other canyon walls surrounding us. It was a great way to take in the beauty of the park without it being too busy, and the trail was long but easy enough to not wear us out before our big hike the next day. As we returned to the campground, the sun was setting, casting a golden glow on Half Dome as the last light in the valley disappeared.

You can see our trail recording for Mirror Lake Trail here.