Cathedral Creek
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| | Raps:5-9, max ↨120ft
Red Tape:Permit required Shuttle:Optional 5 min Vehicle:Passenger Rock type:Granite | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Best season: | July-Oct
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37.9251, -119.5018
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Introduction[edit]
Cathedral Creek is a stunning backcountry canyon located in the heart of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. Big jumps, rappels, slides, all with outstanding Yosemite scenery.
The price for descending this canyon is a ~7 hour off trail approach, and a strenuous hike out of the GC of the Tuolumne afterward. While both the approach and exit are beautiful, they make for a demanding trip and complicate things logistically. With the canyon in the middle, doing Cathedral as a 2-day trip requires combining it with either the approach or the exit. In almost every case it would be safer to do Cathedral on the morning on day 2, then hike out, so that if darkness hits you'll be on a trail, and not in a canyon. A more pleasant trip might involve taking 3 easy days to complete the route.
As far as flows... this can be hard to gauge. But if Middle Earth is do-able, you're probably good to go.
Approach[edit]
If you're into it, you can spot a car at the Lembert Dome trailhead. This will allow your hike out to be entirely on trail, and provides a lot of awesome scenery for your exit. But, if you'd rather have a shorter, and partially off trail exit, or you only have one vehicle, you can just forget about the shuttle entirely.
Park your entry vehicle a few turnouts West of where Cathedral Creek crosses under 120. Make your way down to the creek, and follow it down. It's pretty much that simple. Note the waterflow in the creek as you drop in, and expect it to double by the technical section.
Things are easy for the first 2/3rds or so. You'll hit a trail, follow it for 50 yards or so before it leaves the creek. Sometime later it gets brushy trying to avoid getting your feet wet.
A ways after that, you'll enter a steep boulder garden section. If you follow the talus left, then make your way carefully up onto the high ledge on the left past that, the ledge makes for a bit of a short cut, and some faint bear trails can take you back to the creek as it ends.
Downstream as the canyon starts to turn right there are some more forested camping areas on the left, but probably better to just continue down, and camp on the slabs right above the drop-in for the canyon.
Descent[edit]
The first drop can be slid, but it's probably better to start most of the way down if you don't want to get too battered.
Soon after is another drop ~30 feet. Scouting and a somewhat precise jump is required to avoid boulders down below.
Next major obstacle is a rappel, with a single bolt far up to the right. Could also be used to set a safety line if you wanted to avoid the narrow crack down below and traverse out to a pothole ledge, where you could presumably build an anchor to bypass it.
More downclimbs and jumps. Then a longer rappel (~60 feet) from a tree up on the right.
Next short rappel goes off of a chockstone in a crack back on the left. If that didn't look like a good idea, a log waaay upstream is an option.
The canyon continues being awesome downstream, as it turns left into an angled drop that can be downclimbed and slid (though this could be difficult with high flows.) A big pool follows, and things seem to drop off soon after.
After the pool is actually a pair of slides, and a good jump. Then starts rappelling. The next anchor is a tree way up on the left. Climbing to it is a bit tricky, but if you stay right, all the exposure is over a pool, and not over the next drop. (It's also possible this drop could be jumped).
A pair of bolts down canyon right makes the anchor for the final rappel out of the canyon of ~120 feet. It takes you down to a ledge, which can be climbed off of down to the right through some brush. There are some other interesting options for getting off of this ledge, some of which while awesome, are also absolutely terrifying, and probably not a good idea this far out in the wilderness.
Below here find a downclimbing route to the right past the last set of falls in the canyon. This will take you down above a gorge on the Tuolumne River, where you can find a spot to jump 20-30 feet into the clear water below.
Exit[edit]
Across the river, climb up over the granite ridge, down the other side, and then up just a bit to reach the trail. Turn right and head up. The trail changes between nice wooded sections, to climbing steeply up past one beautiful waterfall after another. It flattens out as you hit Glen Aulin Meadow, and eventually get to near the Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp. Note that this is your last place to legally camp, if you don't feel like hiking the next 6 miles out.
Continuing on, cross the bridge. You'll soon hit a trail intersection. Taking a left will take you past McGee Lake, and down to Cathedral Creek, where you can retrace your steps back to the car. A right turn keeps you on the PCT to take you back to Lembert Dome TH. I also marked a route that seems like a potentially good off trail shortcut from the PCT back to your car at Cathedral Creek, but note that I haven't tried it.
Red tape[edit]
You need a permit. Also a bear can. And probably a really big dry bag because most bear cans aren't waterproof.
