Southbound, the John Muir Trail begins at Happy Isles, on the floor of Yosemite Valley, and immediately asks you to climb. The Mist Trail lifts you past Vernal and Nevada Falls, into Little Yosemite Valley, and up toward the high country. It is a steep introduction, but it is also the classic one: this is where John Muir's trail starts, and where most southbound hikers take their first steps.
I walked this stretch out of order. In 2022 I hiked it northbound, finishing at Happy Isles, and in 2020 I looped through the same high country on the High Sierra Camp trip, past Cathedral Lakes with Cathedral Peak standing over the water. Retold southbound, the trail climbs away from the Valley, threads the Cathedral Range, and drops into Tuolumne Meadows, the broad subalpine meadow on the Tuolumne River that is the first great resupply and rest of the trail.
From Tuolumne, the trail turns south in earnest, toward Donohue Pass and the boundary of the park.
