Sequoia - Lakes Trail July 16-18, 2009
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:53 am
It's almost an annual tradition for me to hike the Lakes Trail out of the old Mt Wolverton ski area parking lot. Tradition is to hike to Pear Lake, via the Watchtower trail, camp at Pear Lake, then do day hikes to Alta Peak, Moose Lake, back to Aster Lake and Emeral Lake and in general, run all over the place.
This trail is relatively short at 6.2 miles to Pear Lake. At 2 miles, you pass above the Watchtower formation, at 3.5 miles you pass Heather Lake, at 4 miles or so you pass between Aster Lake and Emerald Lake, at 6.2 miles you arrive at Pear Lake.
July (IMO) is the best time to go. Just about every Sierra Nevada wildflower is in bloom. Mosquitoes are around, but not too bad. Water is cool, and the fishing is superb. On this particular trip, we had a friendly coyote in camp, marmots in camp, a few pika running around, plenty of fish in the lakes, grouse in the high alpine meadows, chipmunks galore, caught one western terrestrial garter snake, one baby kangaroo rat in camp, one of the girls ran within 6-10 feet of a mountain lion one night, plenty of deer in the meadows along the trails, and probably a couple more animals I'm forgetting.
Day temps were in the low 70's and night temps were 49-51 degrees.
Here's just a few of the almost 320 pictures I took:
Entrance to Sequoia NP:
Moro Rock (AKA elephant rock - do you see the elephant?)
Halfway up Moro Rock:
Start of the Lakes Trail:
Top of Watchtower looking into Tokapah Valley:
On trail. Tokapah Valley below, destination is the rocky ridge in background:
Glimpse of Heather Lake:
Looking down onto Aster Lake:
Emerald Lake beyond the trees:
Pear Lake and Alta Peak:
Pear Lake with Alta Peak up top:
neighborhood marmot:
Running top of the rocky ridge looking back on Pear Lake:
Looking east from above Pear Lake towards Moose Lake:
Camp w/new REI Quarter Dome T2 (don't like it much):
Alta Peak (tomorow's destination):
Return Trail:
Corn Lily with jsut a few of the hundreds of wildflowers:
Leopard Lily:
This trail is relatively short at 6.2 miles to Pear Lake. At 2 miles, you pass above the Watchtower formation, at 3.5 miles you pass Heather Lake, at 4 miles or so you pass between Aster Lake and Emerald Lake, at 6.2 miles you arrive at Pear Lake.
July (IMO) is the best time to go. Just about every Sierra Nevada wildflower is in bloom. Mosquitoes are around, but not too bad. Water is cool, and the fishing is superb. On this particular trip, we had a friendly coyote in camp, marmots in camp, a few pika running around, plenty of fish in the lakes, grouse in the high alpine meadows, chipmunks galore, caught one western terrestrial garter snake, one baby kangaroo rat in camp, one of the girls ran within 6-10 feet of a mountain lion one night, plenty of deer in the meadows along the trails, and probably a couple more animals I'm forgetting.
Day temps were in the low 70's and night temps were 49-51 degrees.
Here's just a few of the almost 320 pictures I took:
Entrance to Sequoia NP:
Moro Rock (AKA elephant rock - do you see the elephant?)
Halfway up Moro Rock:
Start of the Lakes Trail:
Top of Watchtower looking into Tokapah Valley:
On trail. Tokapah Valley below, destination is the rocky ridge in background:
Glimpse of Heather Lake:
Looking down onto Aster Lake:
Emerald Lake beyond the trees:
Pear Lake and Alta Peak:
Pear Lake with Alta Peak up top:
neighborhood marmot:
Running top of the rocky ridge looking back on Pear Lake:
Looking east from above Pear Lake towards Moose Lake:
Camp w/new REI Quarter Dome T2 (don't like it much):
Alta Peak (tomorow's destination):
Return Trail:
Corn Lily with jsut a few of the hundreds of wildflowers:
Leopard Lily:
