It's a big trail. Well-defined singletrack the whole way as far as I remember. It gets a lot of traffic and also a lot of trail maintenance. If there are any open granite areas, they are generally well-cairned and you won't have to walk more than 30-40 yards before coming across the singletrack again. But I don't remember any of those specifically on the Ten Lakes trail. As long as you aren't totby AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
P.S. My favorite mapping site is Hillmap. Link. It has lots of map tilesets, printing functionality, pretty good path & waypoints, etc. Can also look at topos side-by-side with the satellite view.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Yep. You're on the right track. I spent a few hours every week staring at topo maps. It's an addiction. You know you've found a good obscure place when you put the name into Google and get zero, or just a few, results. I've got a list of three or four places like that on my short-list to go visit. I'd tell you where they are, but then they'd get more Google hits...by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Quotetanngrisnir3 Oh, and for anyone who's interested, here's another intrepid individual who also went down the Enchanted Gorge, with some nice pics. Nice site he's got for other trip reports, as well. http://www.lancesimms.com/Hikes/EnchantedGorgeHikeGPS2.html Thanks for sharing, that's a good find. It's smart to go down Enchanted and back up Goddard, thus avoiding what everyone says isby AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Quotechick-on Lake Basin ... the SHR goes thru there... honestly... it's beautiful... but ... I was ... well... not completely overwhealmed... I guess when people oooo and ahh... over something... then it had better be knock dead gorgeous. Funny... I thought Lake Basin was one of the nicer parts of the SHR. My wife always gives me trouble about this... we get somewhere and I either comment &qby AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Quotetanngrisnir3 Mostly what I'm looking for is less people/more photogenic drama. I think that's what most people are really asking when they ask this question. It's also a much easier question to answer. Less people = pick a spot that isn't on a trail and you won't see anyone at all for days. More photogenic usually = further east towards the crest. Any basin with a big lake in the bottom, sby AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Wow. The jump off the high rock at Rainbow Pool was enough for me. If I were them, I'd have my hands much lower to protect the family jewels during landing.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Really depends on your definition of "most remote". Hardest to get to? Furthest from a road? Least visited? Gorge of Despair is primarily a rock climbing destination, not sure it'd be the most scenic from a photographic perspective. Tunemah Lake often gets billed as the most remote lake in the Sierra. Hardly anybody goes to Kaweah Basin. Lake 10565 west of Observation Peak mightby AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Awesome photos! Some of the best I've seen from this season. Thanks for sharing.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Awesome. I camped on top of Whitney on my last night on the JMT last year. We got the best sunset and sunrise I've ever seen bar none... pretty much the whole southern Sierra laid out before you from up there. I spent 45 minutes picking out peaks from my topo map. I could see all the way north to Mount Tom, 56 miles away. It was cold (17F overnight) and it was pretty much the worst night's sleepby AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
There's nothing quite like sitting out a storm under a tarp!by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Why did the chick-on swim across the lake? To get to the other side...by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Enchanted hasn't exactly been high on my list, but I could probably be convinced to do it...by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Yep. Saw that when basil posted it. Technically i visited Muro Blanco too, I walked about 100 yards upstream from the bear boxes at Upper Paradise to get some water.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
This also seems appropriate here: Always like your GPS tracks where you have been through the same area a zillion times. And of course... great pics.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Special yosemitenews bonus photo: Marmot Buttby AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Cross posted from BPL A Visit to the Middle Fork of the Kings River 4.5 days, 75 miles, and roughly 20,000 feet of climbing/descending. Day 1: Up the Copper Creek Trail to Granite Pass. 10 miles, 6,700 ft (!) gain. Day 2: Granite Pass to Simpson Meadow. 11 miles, 4,700 ft loss. Day 3: Simpson Meadow over the Golden Staircase and Mather Pass to Upper Basin. 20 miles, 7,700 ft (!) gain.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
I was sitting around a campfire in Pate Valley once about to go to bed and a scorpion crawled over my foot. Still slept out in the open that night 15' away though I did shake my sleeping bag out before I got in Maybe be careful listening to me when I give advice.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
I've camped at both Crown Lake and below Burro Pass. Both are nice... the views of the Sawtooths are better near Burro Pass. But it's hard to throw a rock without hitting a nice campsite anywhere in the park.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
I do it all the time. Probably 75% of the time when I sleep outside. The exceptions are if it's really windy, about to storm, or lots of mosquitoes. I find it's much nicer than sleeping in a tent... you just stand up and you're outside. You see a lot more nature (birds, small animals, shooting stars, ...) that way. Sleeping in a tent makes me claustrophobic now.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Thanks. Really enjoyed the pics and figuring out where you went.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
I'm sure there's a bunch of good ways up on the east side. I always go to the far right, just above the north side of Secret Lake you walk around the right side of a boulder, do an easy mantle and you're on a nice class 2 ledge that shoots you straight to the Yosemite boundary sign. On the west side, the use trail is the only good way down. The guys we ran into went up the east side at about theby AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Nice. That's the hike I do when I have a few hours to kill in the Meadows... up the fisherman's trail to Cathedral Lakes then over the top of Medlicott past Lake of the Domes and down the other side.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Thanks for sharing. Really like the B&W shots. Did you go over Ten Lakes Pass? I love the view from there.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Saddlebag Lake -> Secret Pass -> Don't Be A Smart Pass -> Young Lakes -> Delaney Meadows. The plan was to continue back to the car via Mine Shaft Pass but the call of the Grill was too strong. Still some snow left in 20 Lakes Basin It seems that most people miss the easy way over Secret Pass. We met a couple of gentlemen who ended up going over the center of the saddle, whiby AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Wow. They reopened it a lot sooner than I thought. Time to go to Lake Vernon and check out what the aftermath of the fire looks like.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
It's been a few years since I've been down it, so my memories of the route finding are not fresh. Got any pics of the areas you are talking about? We did it at the peak of the snowmelt in 2011 (a big snow year) and crossing the creek was not an option. We stayed on the southeast side the whole time with no problems. But there is a lot of micro route finding required, and being comfortable on poliby AndrewF - Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion
After the gate at Aspendell Emerald Lakes Shoulder of Mt Haeckel Lake Sabrina... it was really dry out there Hoping I won't need snowshoes this weekend at around 7,000 ft.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
From February... Chick-on's pics confirm that most of this is gone by now. As of about a week ago there wasn't much of any snow up to about 9,000 ft on the east side near Lake Sabrina. Not sure how the storm this week will affect things.by AndrewF - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Hmm... Not sure what is officially "Church Bowl" but I think on the right side of your last pic is the Bishop's Terrace. At least there is a climb that goes up the buttress there called as such. There's a reference in the Roper climbing guide somewhere to the names of the formations.by AndrewF - Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion