From the Mono Pass trailhead we hiked up the trail a mile or so, then headed cross-country to Kuna Lake. Other than a short stint on the JMT near the upper crossing of the Lyell Fork, we would be off-trail until the waterfalls on the Rafferty Creek trail. There are numerous wonderful meadows below Kuna Lake, where camping is unfortunately illegal.
We crossed the Kuna Crest via the saddle south of Bingaman Lake since it was snow free. Once over the crest, we traversed to Lake 10806 on Kuna Creek, where we camped. Clouds had been building all afternoon, but it didn't rain.
The next morning, after thawing out, we traversed through beautiful meadows south towards Donohue Pass, taking the JMT a short distance to the upper crossing, then continuing upstream. We followed the chain of lakes under the Lyell headwall south, west, then north, then crossed over to the lakes north of Maclure Lake via some nasty talus.
From here, we climbed granite slabs to the basin south of Amelia Earhart Peak, where we camped. (The original plan was to climb to Maclure Lake and traverse to these lakes, but in light of the extensive snow, we took the low route instead.) The forecast clouds never materialized this day, but during the night clouds rolled in and persisted into the next day.
The next morning, we crossed over into the Ireland Lake basin, descended to the lake, crossed over to Evelyn Lake, descended its outlet, and took the now dusty Rafferty Creek trail to Tuolumne Lodge, where we took the shuttle back to the trailhead.
This loop is one of those rare instant "classics", with a very high scenery-to-mileage ratio. There are a lot of lakes and meadows we didn't have a chance to visit that will bring us back...
More Pictures
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2011 11:39PM by basilbop.
