My second backpack the last week of July, actually starting July 31, was a two-night trip from Devils Postpile, up Minaret Creek to Minaret Lake for the first night, then over the Minaret to Ediza route, camping the second night at Ediza. Minaret Lake is relatively uncrowded, Ediza's quite crowded, perhaps made worse so by the camping restriction disallowing camping on the south and east sides of the lake.

The monsoon was active during this trip, Friday was mostly cloudy all day with a few minor sprinkles, though I heard thunder during the afternoon - I think it was coming from the south and south west. Saturday was mostly clear in the morning, clouding up in the afternoon. I was hearing thunder much of the afternoon, mostly to the east, but eventually the storms reached Ediza late afternoon. There were mosquitoes at the beginning of the hike from the Postpile up past Johnson "Lake" and up Minaret Creek, not so much after that.

At least the flat light Friday was good for photographing wetlands...Minaret Creek:



The Roper Route from Minaret to Cecile includes a class 3 notch, approximately here. I had seen descriptions of a different route, leading by a tarn between Minaret and Cecile, and that route is pretty easy, reaching the basin with the tarn here - basically, head right and upward near the point where the creek curves.

A clear advantage of that alternate is an easy side-trip to this view of Minaret Lake:



The haze along the San Joaquin River was smoke from a fire which I guess was near Oakhurst.

Cecile Lake:



Looking down on Iceberg Lake:



Here I may have screwed up, not sure as this was my first time on the route. Instead of following the use trail shown on the USGS topo I ended up losing half the required elevation by going down an extremely steep couloir, starting about here. However, there were plently of tracks in the couloir, some others were clearly taking the same route.

In any case I got down...reaching this view of Iceberg Lake:



Lake Ediza:



and a nice waterfall along Shadow Creek:





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2015 10:19AM by ttilley.

Great shots! Thanks for sharing.

Big wow to your picture of Minaret Lake! So beautiful, thank you for sharing.

I love that loop! Thanks for sharing.

Funny story...I was swimming at the outlet of Iceberg one time and relaxing on a warm slab in the buff to dry off. Just after I got dressed, a female ranger walked up and asked to see my wilderness permit, one of the few times I have actually been asked by a ranger for a permit. I was wondering afterwards how long she might have been waiting for me to get dressed before she approached...

Always great going between Iceberg and Cecile. Such a great route. Thanks for sharing.