Big Pine Lakes, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, and Yosemite 2025

I'm back from my yearly Sierra Nevada trip and wanted to share some highlights of my trip.

First off, I just wanted to give Kudos to my kiddos that hiked 18 miles of trails! I didn't think they would be able to complete some of these amazing hikes, which was okay by me. I told them that we could always turn around and go back. But really, they had the energy to do these hikes...more than a lot of the adults that I saw on the trails!

First major stop of our trip was the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Prior to this year, I had never heard of this ancient forest even though I've visited the Sierra Nevadas countless times. When I had been planning our trip, I noticed a landmark close by the Big Pine Lakes on Google maps, which had caused me to zoom in. Well, this was the landmark, and let me tell you that I was glad that I zoomed in on the map! The trees in this forest are nearly 5,000 years old! It was surreal standing in an ancient grove that is older than the Bible and STILL is living! Wow! In fact, the oldest confirmed tree on the planet is in this forest, named "Methuselah." There was an older tree that was cut down years ago to study the trees, which was named, "Prometheus." This tree was confirmed to be 4,900 years old at the time. By today's date, it would be 5,000 years old.

The next major event on our agenda was the Big Pine Lakes hike. The hike itself consists of seven lakes total, but in order to reach all seven lakes it would require an actual overnight backpacking trip with a wilderness permit. This is due to the hike being extremely long, and no one could get through the entire trail in one day. I kept reading that Lake 2 and 3 were worth seeing (Lake 3 being the personal favorite by most hikers), so I planned out a day hike to see up until Lake 3, have lunch, then go back. In total, the entire round trip was 10 miles long to get to Lake 3! For those of you who don't know, it was my husband and kiddos with me; I wasn't sure if the kids could make it that long. As I said in the beginning of the post, I was amazed that they were able to keep going. I had asked countless times if they wanted to turn around, etc...but nope! They kept going like troopers that they are! They have been on countless hikes in the past, so they do have experience, but never this long. After the hike, we had rented a cabin at Glacier Lodge - as to opposed to camping - because I knew that I wanted a hot shower after this hike and a warm meal.

Okay, so I uploaded these photos individually and not in a gallery and honestly I am too lazy to find all the photos again and redo them on the site. So in that case, I will write some blurbs between some of the photos.

After the whole Big Pine Lakes experience, we headed up to Yosemite to our campground. I was able to snag a spot in the Yosemite Creek Campground. A redditor had recommended a specific campsite in Yosemite Creek, in which I was able to get it. We camped right on next to the creek, and even had our own 8 foot deep swimming hole!

You might ask, where is THIS? Well, this is Nevada falls. Are we crazy to do another hike after the Big Pine Lakes? The answer is YES! We are crazy! In total, this hike was 8 miles around trip. The hike is named the Mist Trail. Unfortunately for us, there was a detour on the trail, having us reroute part of the hike to the John Muir Trail. On the way down, we were able to see the rest of the Mist Trail because the detour was open at that time.

This is at the top of Nevada Falls!

This is Emerald Pool, which leads into Vernal Falls. Above it is Nevada Falls.

Tenaya Lake.

The day after the Nevada Falls hike, we said NO MORE hiking! Do you blame us? We ended up having a nice day at Tenaya Lake doing some fishing, swimming, and having a picnic. The next day, we ended up packing up and leaving a day early because of the long drive ahead of us and needing to get some rest before work. The drive home was about 11 hours, but with stops, it put us at 12.5 hours. Whew! We are back now and everything is put away in storage. But in my mind, I am still dreaming of those beautiful mountains and trees, still at peace. Until next time! -Beth #yosemite #sierra #sierras #sierranevada #bigpinelakes #bigpinelakesca #camping #hiking #Laketwo #lakethree #glacierlodge #yosemitecreek #nevadafalls #vernalfalls #tenayalake