This spectacular trekking holiday starts out amongst the soaring granite peaks and thundering waterfalls of John Muir's 'Range of Light'. Spending 4 days in Yosemite National Park, a selection of day hikes from our campground will take us close to the towering El Capitan and cascading Nevada Falls and to the bare rock summit of Half Dome (2695m). Crossing the Sierra at Tioga Pass, we then drive south via eerie Mono Lake to the small and friendly town of Lone Pine, where our gear is packed onto mules by their cowboy handlers. With only our daypacks to carry, we begin our 6-day trek into the High Sierra, a pristine wilderness of Ponderosa pine, crystal clear lakes and alpine meadows. Our goal, lying atop an ice-carved crest of 4000 metre peaks, is Mount Whitney (4418m / 14,495ft), the highest peak in continental USA. Travelling via Death Valley, this memorable holiday ends in the world's most famous playground - Las Vegas.

Trip Guide
This is not a long or continuous trekking trip. Whilst in Yosemite National Park, we will complete a series of day-hikes from a campground, with short transfers to take us to the trailheads. We have the option of a rest or easier day here and all of the walks are optional. This part of the trip can be made much easier if one or more of the walks is missed out. Most of the hiking throughout the trip is on good trails, but approximately a third of it will be on rougher terrain where no path, or only poor paths, exist. There will be sections of bare rock slabs, rough boulder fields and scree. The summit slopes of Half Dome are very exposed (although there are handrails). During the 6 days that we spend beneath Mount Whitney, we have just a 2-day walk-in to the peak, a rest day at basecamp, an optional ascent of Whitney itself and then 2-day walk out. On each of the principal hiking days on the trip we will cover something in the region of 20 kilometres (13 miles) and on 2 of these days, there will be a considerable amount of ascent and descent (Half Dome ascent and Mount Whitney summit day). We ascend to considerable altitude only at Mount Whitney's summit (4418 metres / 14,495 feet) and this comes late in the trip when we should be reasonably well acclimatised. There are only 3 driving days (apart from short trailhead transfers) and driving distances are relatively short.