For more information on the Nelson Lake Trail, see GORP's Tuolumne Meadows to Nelson Lake feature.

Follow SR-120 (Tioga Road), the road that bisects Yosemite National Park, to the Tuolumne Meadow campground. The trailhead is by the group campsite.

This trail, traveling for a time along a bubbling creek, enters the Elizabeth Lake Basin, crosses the Catherdral Range, and ends at Nelson Lake. Along the trail one has the best vantage point of the geologic wonders of Unicorn Peak and the Cockscomb. Nelson Lake offers excellent fishing for brook trout.