Hidden Lake

Hidden Lake sits high in Tenaya Canyon's granite country, a small alpine pool near Mount Watkins that most Yosemite visitors never hear about — because there's no sign, no trailhead, and no maintained path leading to it. At roughly 8,396 feet in elevation and covering about four acres, it's less a place you stumble into than one you navigate to on purpose.

How People Actually Get There

Hidden Lake lies just off the Snow Creek Trail corridor that connects Mirror Lake in Yosemite Valley to Tenaya Lake and Tioga Road — a route backpackers use to cross between the valley floor and the high country over a day or two. Hikers coming from Olmsted Point typically leave the maintained trail and cut cross-country for a short stretch to reach the shoreline, then rejoin the main route. None of this is marked. Carry a topo map or GPS track and know how to use it — the surrounding terrain has enough use trails and climber paths branching off that it's easy to end up somewhere else entirely.

What You'll Find

Expect a quiet, modest-sized lake ringed by granite slabs and conifers, with a stillness that comes from almost nobody passing through. There's no infrastructure here — no facilities, no interpretive signage, just water, rock, and whatever weather the high country is running that day. Treat it as a side trip on a longer Snow Creek or Mount Watkins itinerary rather than a stand-alone outing.