Getting There

The first part of the journey to the Young Lakes starts with a hike along the Glen Aulin Trail. The trailhead to Glen Aulin can be reached at Tuolumne Meadows in the northeast of Yosemite. Make sure to get your wilderness permit! We parked along the road near the stables. An alternate route to the Young Lakes can be taken which starts at Lembert Dome and visits Dog Lake along the way.

The Hike

The trail to Young Lakes following the Glen Aulin route goes with the following warning: we missed the Dog Lake junction to the Young Lakes from the Glen Aulin route and didn't make the lake the first night. We camped near the hard to find junction. We made the lake the following day after erroneously going up the Dog Lake trail and eventually backtracking to find the junction. We made the mistake because a tree blocked the trail right before the junction of the Glen Aulin Route and the Dog Lake trail making it impossible to see the trail to the Young Lakes. We got fooled by going directly to a right hand tree cut that leads you away from the junction trail and up the Dog Lake trail. Be sure to at least hike up to Upper Young Lake for the view of the lower two Young Lakes.

The Fishing

My son landed a nice Brookie caught on a "Sierra Bug" which is an attractor created by Steve Beck who is the author of two excellent books that you may already have: "Fishing Yosemite" and "Fishing the John Muir Trail". It took me a while to dial-in the winning combination but any small ant imitation and/or a traditional wet fly like a Coachmen fished just under the surface will work. Fishing time was limited to an impending storm and a late morning start after breaking camp to hike out before the storm hit. We had only had a couple hours to fish with about six similar size fish caught. Trout were cruising the edges and stealth was mandatory. We found a hot spot on a peninsula on the east end of the middle Young Lake which followed a small inlet stream. I didn't bother fishing Upper Young Lake and didn't have time left to fish the Lower Young Lake. A buddy of mine fished the Lower Young Lake a week following our trip and did very well using spinners with fish ranging from six to twelve plus inches.