Distance: From 1.4 miles (2.2 km) to 24 miles (38 km) round trip
Trailhead Elevation: 8,600 feet (2,620 meters)
Elevation Gain: Less than 100 feet (30 meters) for the first 8 miles (13 km); 2,500 feet (760 meters) if you actually go all the way to Donohue Pass
Though the trail map is a better alternative for getting the lay of the land elevationwise, there's nothing like a satellite view for scouting meadows and bodies of water. If you're considering hiking more than the first mile or two of the trail, scroll the map all the way to the southern end of the highlighted trail at Donohue Pass, the Yosemite boundary, to see the terrain.
The giant green hikers mark, as they always do, the trailhead, which in this case is just off the Tuolumne Meadows Lodge parking lot. The big red bed marks the lodge itself. The parking lot here is reserved for lodge guests; if you're not one, you can park a few hundred meters to the west at the big blue "P". The unhighlighted white strip stretching east to west across the top of the map is the Tioga Road.
The balloons all mark possible places to turn around:
The green balloon marks a pretty spot where a pair of bridges cross the Tuolumne River, with a meadow surrounding the river upstream and cascades downstream. It's three quarters of a mile, more or less, from the trailhead.
At the blue balloon, a mile and a half from the trailhead, another bridge crosses Rafferty Creek.
At the pink balloon, the trail skirts the southern edge of a large meadow, with the Tuolumne River cutting across the opposite side. It's two miles from the trailhead.
The yellow balloon, which you'll have to scroll or zoom out to see, is about three miles from the trailhead. It marks the beginning of a series of meadows surrounding the riverbed.