Why hike Lyell Canyon?
Maybe you’re a descendant of the eminent English geologist Charles Lyell, who lived long enough to have a canyon named after him and make all those years of looking at rocks worthwhile. Maybe you’d like to mingle with through-hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail, of which the Lyell Canyon trail is a part, and find out whether you really can smell them before you see them. Or maybe you’d just like a pleasant, if unspectacular, hike through the woods, with a few bridges and river crossings (which may sound redundant, but the latter don’t always come with the former in Yosemite). Best Time to Visit: There’s not a definite bad time, as long as the Tioga Road is open (see its historical opening & closing dates), though there may be snow on the trail for the first few weeks after the road opens. The second half of June and the first half of July, roughly when the meadows will be greenest and the rivers at their most watery, may have an edge over other times of year. Crowd Factor: It’s not too c
