Getting There

To reach Tenaya Lake, get to Highway 120 at the east end of Yosemite National Park, or if coming from the west entrance of Yosemite National Park, take Tioga Road until you reach Tenaya Lake on the right. The highway (120) passes directly next to it and there is about a mile of shoreline to explore. I've listed Tenaya Lake as being in Yosemite National Park but it must be stated that this lake, including the highway, are technically not inside Yosemite Wilderness by virtue of exclusion which means DFW can still plant trout here. Trout stocking in the backcountry of Yosemite stopped years ago.

Rainbow Trout landed and released at Tenaya Lake

The Hike

Tenaya Lake is a roadside lake, so there is technically no hiking. If you're mobile and want to chuck lures or flies, then there could be a long but easy traverse of the shoreline. As mentioned above there is a great deal of roadside shoreline to set up on. Traveling to the east end, you could make your way around to the entire south side which appears to have an abundance of great fishing spots. I've been asked if there was wheelchair access here and I believe there is on the northeast end.

Tenaya Lake

The Fishing

Report - September, 24 2018

Tenaya Lake is one of our favorite places - especially for the kids who love to explore the beaches on the north side by the road. We visited Tenaya after departing the Ellery Lake campground where we spent a cold night camping. The daytime weather was warm and sunny. We set up some bait rods hoping to hook one of those big hatchery Rainbows or healthy Brookies we tied into a few years back. But, as it turns out, this wasn't our year as all we saw were small Brookies. We landed a few small ones and that made the kids happy so we consider it successful. I have no doubt that Tenaya has some lunkers lurking around.

Landing a trout with the kids at Tenaya Lake

Small Brook Trout from Tenaya Lake

Report - June 28, 2015

We stopped the car on the way home from Saddlebag Lake to fish Tenaya Lake on Tioga Road. With the hordes of people stopping and swimming I will admit, my expectations were rather low. However, our first cast with an inflated night crawler returned a bite right away. While we didn't land that one, we did manage to hook and release three beautiful fish before we left.

Tenaya Lake

The first fish was a nice Rainbow that we hooked near the east shore of Tenaya Lake. We then landed a nice Brook Trout in the same spot. And finally, we hooked one more nice Rainbow from the same spot. I took my fly rod down to the east beach looking for action but only managed to get an eyeful of what the trout are eating. I saw a great deal of bait fish cruising the shallows. Some of them reaching 7 inches long. Tenaya Lake looks like a great place to take your float tube or Kayak for some serious trout fishing.

Tenaya Lake - Yosemite National Park

Rainbow Trout landed and released at Tenaya Lake

Tenaya Lake

Nice Brookie landed and released at Tenaya Lake

Tenaya Lake

Tenaya Lake

Tenaya Lake

Tenaya Lake

Kids fishing at Tenaya Lake

Rainbow Trout landed at Tenaya Lake