[MojaveGeek]

I live in Boston but have been hiking in Washington for three decades. I haven't posted a TR here before, but reading some recent ones, I'm motivated to archive my most recent trip here. Hope it's welcome. My standard hiking travel is day hikes out of some low priced motel where I can cook or nuke my meals, get out pre-dawn and spend the day outside. I call it "motel camping" and although it means my shaky knees don't need to carry full pack weight, I don't get to sleep out in the wild. A compromise. A few years ago I spent a few days in the eastern edge of Yosemite (the Sierra rise from west to east, so the highest peaks are near the eastern escarpments) and was blown away. Wanted to go back last year, but too much snow. So this year I spent two weeks hiking out of June Lake, CA. The plan had been to go in via a number of access points on the east side, but due to the fires - Ferguson in western Yosemite and Lions just a bit east of Mammoth - I did all my hiking in a small area around Tioga Pass, as it seemed to have the clearest air many days. Of course you don't know what's going to happen, even if you study the smoke convection models online, so I was getting up before 4 to be on the trail with the sun, as the mornings were generally good, with smoke rising and wafting over the Sierra peaks some time between 11 and 2 most days. Most... I flew into Reno and during the three hour drive south saw almost nothing, the air was brown and the sun sickly. So my "big peak" plans for the first day sort of faltered. First I went and hiked around Panum Crater near Mono Lake. It's a volcanic crater which has a huge obsidian plug, and I like obsidian. At that point I mistakenly figured if it was smoky in the Owens Valley, it was smoky on the peaks. Not so.

most of that is obsidian

Next up I drove to near the pass and hiked Tioga Peak via Gardisky Lake. There is a trail to the lake and a straightforward route to the summit. I spent some time up there with an initially nice view that gradually faded as the afternoon wore on.

Lake

Peak

That turned into an early finish so I wandered around the south Tufa reserve at Mono Lake. Hot springs with highly mineralized water hit the cold lake and the minerals precipitate out. The lake level is lower than it used to be (long story including the LA Owens Valley water grab) so the towers now stick up into the air. I had been there 30 years earlier, and I really liked them. Easy stroll.

Tufa towers

Feeling better about things, I went up False White mountain the next day. Trail in a few miles, then long walk in scree and boulders with views all over the place, lots of snowfields and remnant glaciers. Classic Sierra grey granite in vast quantity. A great day till the smoke came in. I was almost blown off the final ridge I had to cross by lightning, which struck much too close for comfort. Problem: I had not been able to see the incoming weather because of the smoke. Scared the whatever out of me. Oh and I found Tioga Gentians. In the NW we are well familiar with Mountain Bog Gentians blooming purple at this time of year, but these are much cuter I must say.

False White

False White

False White

Tioga Gentian

Well the smoke had held off for much of the day and maybe I was onto something with the early start so the next day I went up Mt. Gibbs, which stands tall next to Dana which I'd already climbed. Long ridge walk above the trees, off trail most of the way, reddish rock. Got good views. Also got a surprise sprinkle at 11 which caused me to take a much more abrupt descent to Mono Pass out of fear of lightning. The rain didn't start till I was getting into the trees, and then I was on 3.5 miles of trail to exit, but wow it was booming behind me. Turned out a storm got stuck there and dumped up to 8 inches just east of the crest, washing out a road near June Lake. Very glad not to have been in that; really intense thunder.

Gibbs view west

east to Mt. Dana

Feeling a bit better about the smoke, I traveled to the pass and 15 miles further west, to Tenaya Lake to hike the peak of that name. I like the area because around here you get the huge granite slabs and mounds like Half Dome. But this was a mistake, as it was much closer to the fire. I had a few views as I climbed, enough to realize it was indeed insanely beautiful, but the smoke came in fast and heavy and after I lunched on the summit visibility went down to about 100 yards. Fortunately I had eyeballed my off trail exit route over a different set of cool slabs and a long ridge to make sure it would go, before the smoke came in. Really like hiking in a dense fog, but a smelly one.

Tenaya Peak

starting to get smoky

OK, stay east, that was the lesson there. So the next day I went back to Gardisky lake and walked a very nice long ridge over to a peak named Dore Cliffs. Miles of walk on nice grassy stuff, found a use trail even, climb at the end with abrupt finish looking down a thousand feet into a snow field. Cool, except the smoke came in early and the view in the end was pretty bleak. Glad I had my GPS for navigating the descent to the lake as I could not see a thing.

Nice approach with a view to Conness beyond Saddlebag Lake

Final push to the peak

Could be a great view!

Next morning seemed a bit clearer up at the pass, so I took advantage of that and went up Dana Plateau, which is a broad area with deep escarpments just east of Dana. When I had climbed Dana I had looked down and thought "That looks like a cool and wild area" and, indeed, it was. Smoke held off much of the day into early afternoon.

Dana Plateau

Dana from the other side

Kidney Lake down there

Another day, another hike. I went to Mt. Conness, which has an imposing profile that had looked sort of ominous when I eyeballed it from the other locations I'd been. Started in the hike, and then saw smoke back about 1/2 mile from where I'd parked. This bothered me. After a couple of cycles of walk to the next viewpoint and look back, I just sat on a rock, and eventually it stopped. That ate a lot of time. And further, instead of exiting the trail to scramble up to Alpine Lake, I followed the nice trail all the way to a really cool cirque at the end of the valley, but no way up from there. With the smoke, gave up on the objective but wandered around some nice alpine lakes. As with my other days, I saw no one. And today, when I'd bailed on the peak, the smoke held off most of the day!

Beautiful morning approach

Nice cirque

One of the Treble Lakes

On my previous trip I'd followed the JMT past Cathedral Peak and done some nice off trail slab hiking up in that area. This time I knew about the climbers trail right up to Cathedral, followed it, and really enjoyed it - much nicer than the dusty main trail highway. From the base of Cathedral, I wandered over the Echo Peaks, considered going further, but bailed out with the incoming smoke. By the time I ate my lunch down at the higher Cathedral Lake, the smoke was intense enough to make my eyes water, so I just left.

Cathedral Peak

Nice view before the smoke

You can see where it gets the name.

So after these days I needed something slightly lower key, as I was tired from getting up early every day. So I drove to Saddlebag Lake (where I'd seen the smoke a few days earlier) and hiked a big loop behind the lake and a whole bunch of lakes of various sorts back there. This was my only all-trail day. The lakes were pretty, but I lost track of their names. There must have been 20 or so! I saw a handful of people in this area. Saddlebag Lake TH is sort of beat but really scenic beyond. Temp was 33 when I started.

Behind Saddlebag Lake

One of the lakes

Another one.

OK, ready for some more peak bagging, I went to Mammoth Peak with the intention of continuing along the Kuna Crest, which had sure caught my eye on my last trip. I got up Mammoth, but the smoke was coming in, so I bailed on the peaks and dropped to scenic Kuna Lake to exit. The first couple of miles were on trail, then open forest to mostly stable granite talus slops to big hunks of granite boulders along the summit ridge.

Nice skies on ascent

Kuna Crest from the peak

Kuna Crest from the lake.

OK, I was psyched to try Conness again, which I did. I exited the trail properly, thrashed my way up (in part) up to Alpine Lake, and picked my own route above the trees to the summit ridge. That was a very cool place, with great exposure on the north side, lots of snow fields and lakes. But I'd moved slowly and from here I had another 400 feet of real steep climb to the summit plateau. Reluctantly, but probably wisely, I did not summit. Again, would have been plenty of light, but I would not have been up at 4 the next day. For some reason, this day really took a lot out of me.

Great morning skies on approach

Alpine Lake

View from the east ridge

Conness Glacier

Two snowfields converge near the summit.

Yes I was tired a bit after Conness so for my last full day I went up a 4 mile trail to Spillway Lake from the same TH I'd used for Gibbs and Mammoth. Mellow day, some really nice high meadows, and I continued up to Helen Lake above. Helen was more wild but Spillway more scenic.

Meadows along Parker Pass Creek

Spillway Lake

So my last day. I was going to sleep in Reno that night to catch an early flight home. I had planned on climbing Sonora Peak out of Sonora Pass on the way home, but when I googled for directions I learned there was yet another fire up there to the north, the pass and trails closed. Hmm. But it was the first clear day I'd had in the Owens Valley so I went to Black Point Crater on the north side of Mono Lake and picked my way to the high point and then the "Fissures" which are... just that. Nice hike. It was 60 when I started and near 100 when I finished, even before lunch. That sun is hot!

Mono Lake

One of the fissures

Inside another fissure

Well I got in plenty of miles and really enjoyed the Sierra. I know I will be back but I sure hope it's not during fire season! I had a lot of other places I could have hiked, but really ended up just commuting up CA 120 every do to one side or the other of Tioga Pass. Well Tioga is the highest pass in the Sierra, and I like to start high, so can't complain much about that. Also I had relative solitude on most days this trip, running into very few people. Obviously that was in part because Yosemite Valley was closed the whole time, and indeed CA 120 was closed on the western side for a week. The only area where there were many people was the campground around Saddlebag Lake, and hiking the JMT near Cathedral Lakes. Most days I saw no one. I like those sorts of days

[John Morrow]

So wish I could get there! Thanks for the tease. We may be the only two NWHikers to have been on "False White". Great walk, great lakes, great views, but not exactly known to be a classic! John

[olderthanIusedtobe]

I love the east side of Yosemite/Tuolumne area. I haven't explored it as thoroughly as you did. Sounds like you were creative and flexible in coming up with hikes to do each day. Thanks for posting your TR.