On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
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.
TKH
The Baxter Lakes trail is abandoned and you have to find your own way through timberline country. If you are lucky you find the occasional cairn which shows that another lost soul has to have been there before and you are not alone in believing that this should be the way. It’s no guarantee, we may both be deluded.
You come out high above the South Fork of Woods Creek on pieces of the old Baxter Lakes trail. The JMT runs along the creek on the other side
Walking the old Baxter lakes trail you see the remnants of some ancient trees. This one I liked for the cork screw alignment of the fibers in the wood. Contrasting with the old fellow in the next picture.
On this species, the fibers align straight as an arrow.
You reach the JMT again near Dollar Lake. By this time it was clear to me that I would not be completing the hike as planned. I therefore did not make it into 60 Lakes Basin as the SoSHR envisions and instead passed through the Rae Lakes Basin. Rae Lakes is incredibly popular, but just as in the case of Lake Marjorie earlier, there was no hullabaloo at Rae Lakes. The only evidence of its popularity was in the form of metal bear boxes for food storage installed by the NPS. They are a clear indication that the place is popular with people who do not know what they are doing or just don’t care. I never ever sleep at places like this, their beauty notwithstanding, because I like my bears at a distance. Hopefully so large a distance that they don’t see me and I don’t see them.
From Rae Lakes I went down in direction of Vidette Meadows where I would again leave the JMT. Alas, half-way down a squall blew through and I took refuge in my tent. The strorm ripped apart my tent (which, admittedly, was on its last legs. This was meant to be its last outing before retirement. But you see, it was half a pound lighter than its replacement that was sitting in my apartment back home. Talk about “stupid light”!). I and my gear got completely soaked. I decided to bail via Kearsage Pass to the Onion Valley TH and from there to the 395 corridor.
On the way I passed Bullfrog Lake and the vista there eased a little bit my frustration with this cut-short outing.
More Bullfrog Lake
View in direction of Forrester pass across Bullfrog Lake.
I’ll be back, I do know why but don’t know when. And next time I am going to kill it! That’s my line and I am sticking to it
Another flower or two to close out this submission. This is a Sky Pilot (Polemonium eximium), which only grows above 10000 ft in the Sierra. I have found that is mostly grows where I have just been pushed to my limits. This may just be a necessary but not sufficient condition.
Noble Yarrow (Achillea nobilis)
Brian Perkins
I’ve made the endless descents over Shepherd and Sawmill passes into the Owens valley but fortunately I’ve only gone up via Kearsarge or Cottonwood where one starts at high altitude. Thanks for posting this trip report and better luck with your tents.
pieceofpeace
The photos, which look professional, with the clear, pristine ‘air,’ are stunningly gorgeous!
Thanks for sharing this enjoyable feast for the eyes…
eclare
Those lakes are so pretty. Thank you for putting this series together!
MCat
Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us. You must have been soaked during the storm. You sure do have grit and you are an amazing photographer. I live in California near San Francisco so it’s really urban. It’s so refreshing to see such untouched wilderness not far from where I live.
WaterGirl
Thanks so much for the series, TKH! And for the last one, as well. :-)
cope
Your comments tell a tale of a failed trek but your pictures tell a tale of grand beauty. Thanks.
Allen Henderson
Thanks so much for posting this. Eastern Sierra and Sequoia/Kings are my favorite areas in the world. Lovely pictures <3
TKH
@cope: That sums it up pithily!
TKH
@WaterGirl: You are most welcome! I was pleased to see for how many it was a trip down memory lane.
I will be out for the rest of the year collecting memories and photos for future submissions.
If it were only dependent on you and your efforts, this place will still be a going concern.
Kelly
A trip on Memory Lane for me. I hiked the JMT in1997, last 2 weeks of August+ first week of September. Beautiful summer weather until my last night near Guitar Lake. A big storm with lightning and several inches of snow in the morning. My tiny tent kept me dry. I skipped the Mt Whitney side trip due to thunder in distance and skedaddled down to the road.
WaterGirl
@TKH:
As in you won’t be on Balloon Juice at all?
Grumpy Old Railroader
Excellent post and pics
Dan B
@Kelly: I went with co-workers on a backpack to the Cascade crest. It was a lovely cloudless evening but we woke up to four inches of snow concealing our cooking gear that we’d left out. I believe it was August.
TKH
@WaterGirl: Pretty much. If I stay healthy, I’ll be out seven+ months this year, all in locations with non-existent or very limited connectivity. In between these trips I have breaks of ten days or so, but these are always insanely busy.
And when I check in at the airport, say, I lack all context for understanding the conversation. All the more so in the interesting times we are living in today.
Mike Mundy
I was up there in 2005!