Getting There

If you are going to stay at Upper McCabe Lake or Roosevelt Lake be sure to get a Yosemite Wilderness permit! We chose to launch our trip to Roosevelt Lake from the Saddlebag Lake Area. There is a trailhead by the campground with plenty of parking. This is a very popular place due to the 20 Lakes Basin on the north side of Saddlebag Lake. There is a store with tackle and supplies and a restaurant for that great hamburger your'e gonna crave when you come back out of the woods. And best of all, they have a water taxi to take you across Saddlebag lake. This will save you about 2 miles of hiking.

The Hike

We decided to stay at Upper McCabe Lake on our first night in Yosemite before making our way to Roosevelt Lake. It is a difficult hike to Upper McCabe Lake in Yosemite. After exiting the water taxi at the north end of Saddlebag Lake, we enjoyed a mile or so of easy hiking as we headed toward Cascade Lake. Passing between Cascade and Tower Lakes, we headed up the trail north towards a lake called Secret Lake. This lake is usually unnamed on maps. We turned left and headed south towards North Peak to make a large switch back and head back to the top of the ridge. We followed this ridge line searching for areas to climb down to Upper McCabe Lake. This was tricky hiking in the class 3 arena. There are better routes to Upper McCabe Lake, we are sure. The boulder hopping got us there.

The next morning we packed up camp at Upper McCabe Lake and headed over to the saddle on the south side of Upper McCabe Lake to Roosevelt Lake. This is a difficult climb, but stay to the right and take your time. It's only 1000 feet or so up but it is very steep. Once at the top of the saddle you will see both Upper McCabe Lake and Roosevelt Lake.

The Fishing

REPORT - June 11, 2015

There are no more fish in Roosevelt Lake. This has been confirmed by multiple sources including the rangers in Yosemite. The lake has been gillnetted to make habitat for the Yellow-Legged Frogs. Another huge loss for the high Sierra angler as this was a premiere fishery. Why they choose the best fishing holes instead of fishless lakes is enough to make me break a fly rod over my knee. It still makes a great place to camp if you plan hitting Upper McCabe or the Young Lakes.



REPORT - July 1, 2012

Fishing Roosevelt Lake is usually productive for Rainbows in the 12-15 inch class. The shoreline of Roosevelt Lake is wide open for backcasting with your flyrod. I usually work the west shore of Roosevelt Lake with dry flies like grasshoppers first to see if I can find any aggressive feeders. I ended up in a cove about half way down the west shore of Roosevelt Lake fishing to a group of fish that were giving black ants and green Humpys attention. The final fish was landed on an Elk hair Caddis.

We have had luck at Roosevelt Lake in the past using spinners. You really don't need bait here. There is plenty of open shoreline at Roosevelt Lake to cast lures and flies.