Echo Pass

Echo Pass is a gap in Yosemite's Cathedral Range where the trail runs out and cross-country travel begins — reached by following the Budd Lake Trail out of Tuolumne Meadows, then leaving it behind to climb open granite and talus toward the pass itself. There's no signage, no cairn line, no maintained tread past Budd Lake, just map, compass, and a willingness to route-find. The payoff is a high vantage onto Matthes Crest and the surrounding spires of Echo Peaks, terrain well known to Yosemite's climbing and scrambling crowd.

What the route involves

From Budd Lake, reaching Echo Pass means climbing cross-country over open granite slabs and talus with no marked trail. Continuing past the pass toward the Echo Peaks summits themselves adds real difficulty: routes there run from Class 2 scrambling up to Class 5 technical climbing, on exposed and sometimes slippery rock. This is backcountry travel for people who already know how to read a topo map and move confidently off-trail, not a groomed day hike.

Good to know

• Access starts on the Budd Lake Trail near Tuolumne Meadows, off the John Muir Trail corridor
• Best suited to experienced hikers, scramblers, and climbers comfortable with exposure and no marked path
• Often tied into a look at Matthes Crest or a longer Cathedral Range traverse
• Overnight stays here fall under Yosemite's standard wilderness permit system, same as anywhere else in the park's backcountry