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From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
Last Christmas, my step-daughter expressed an interest in hiking in the eastern Sierra after seeing my shots from Big Pine Creek. I suggested that Little Lakes Valley would be a better first hike. She thought May would be a good time to hike up there, I thought that would be a bit early. That was before our very, very wet winter.
At the beginning of June, I decided to do a recon mission hike up Little Lakes Valley. The road was closed at the Pack Station near Rock Creek Lake which is a little over a mile from the normal trailhead. I hiked up the road to the trailhead and only saw a few patches of asphalt in the snow. Rock Creek was still mostly covered in ice and snow.
Once past the trailhead, the trail became difficult to follow, I had to rely on tracks left by other hikers and cross-country skiers. I did get off the trail at one point and had to hike up a hill to get back to the trail. My goal was to hike to Heart Lake, about a 2 1/2 mile hike from where I’d parked. Since I didn’t have microspikes, hiking was a bit slow and so I headed back after reaching Heart Lake.
I shared the results of my recon mission with Jinsun when we got together for a belated Father’s Day dinner and she agreed that it would be a good idea to wait until the road had opened to the trailhead to make the hike(it is still only open to the pack station as of late June).
All shots were taken with the Sony A7iv.
The end of the road, for now. The Sun has just come up and it is time to start hiking the mile to the trailhead.
This is the trailhead. The parking lot was covered in snow.
The trail starts off following Rock Creek, this portion was not covered in ice and snow. The trail heads up that hill, I think. This is the first clear view of the mountains at the southern end of the valley.
Heading over the hill with Mack Lake to the left. This is where I got off the trail a bit and found myself at Mack Lake and knew that I shouldn’t actually be walking at its shoreline and had to hike up the hill to rejoin the trail.
I arrived at Marsh Lake. I shot here last Fall when I traveled up to the valley for Fall color. There are a lot of plant life growing from the bottom of the lake, there was no evidence of that now.
The next lake is Heart Lake, it is shaped like a heart. Normally these lakes are surrounded by meadows, but I stayed close to the trees since I didn’t really know where the shoreline was due to the snow.
I decided to turn back after reaching Heart Lake, it was my goal, and return to my car. This was right next to my car; it looked like a statue in a little ice cave.
As I started back down the hill to US395, I stopped at Rock Creek Lake. It is a bit lower in elevation and the ice had partially melted on the water surface.
eclare
Great photos! Be careful, I don’t see how you stayed on the trail.
Baud
Nice. I did snow covered trail hiking this year. Phone GPS was vital to not getting lost.
JPL
The pictures are beautiful, but I’m not sure the captures were worth it. geez
HinTN
That’s some blue water against the snow in Rock Creek Lake. Thanks for sharing your late Spring adventure, 🐾BillinGlendaleCA.
Dagaetch
Beautiful photos. I’m particularly taken by the last one, I’m a sucker for water reflections haha.
Are you happy with the A7iv? I’m contemplating an upgrade from my A7Rii, and don’t need the crazy high resolution of the R series.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
Sorry for the late replies, I just got home from shooting the Milky Way with my new modified camera/
@eclare: Thanks, two things helped: I’ve hiked the trail twice before and there were folk who left tracks with snow shoes and skis.
@Baud: It is the first time I’ve hiked any length in the snow, next time, micro-spikes.
@JPL: Thanks, it was something different for a native Californian.
@HinTN: Thanks, all the lakes I’ve been to in the valley are a nice dark blue. I’m hoping to hit a few more when I head up there next.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Dagaetch: The A7iv is a really good camera, it is especially good for night photography.
StringOnAStick
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Get the Strava phone app and is the free version as a mapping device where you can follow your progress on a topo map that has the trail marked on it. It uses satellite tracking so you don’t need cell service and you can send a link to a friend and they can monitor as well. An excellent safety and trail mapping device for real time use.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@StringOnAStick: The one point where I did get off the trail, I figured it out pretty quickly as in “This is Mack Lake, I’m not supposed to see this if I’m on the trail”.
BigJimSlade
With phones and AllTrails (I go ahead and pay for it), downloading a map of a hike and following along is great (you don’t have to actually click to “start” the hike – that will use up the battery). Much easier than unfolding huge topo maps and trying to read the terrain, lol.
@BillinGlendaleCA, I look forward to seeing your pics from hiking with your step-daughter :-)