This hike is just out of the Mammoth area. It starts at about 7,500 feet ascending to just over 13,100 feet. It has a great view as it is one of the highest peaks in the area. The hike is long at just about 20 miles with 5,700 feet elevation gain. The trail begins at McGee Creek TH. There is a packing station here, which does cause the trail to be sandy and rutted at the beginning. The first hour and a half of hiking is primarily unshaded. We started early so for most of this section we were shielded from the sun with the sides of the canyon. The area is very colorful with lots of rusty rocks.
You cross the creek twice and then get into the forest and start the incline. There are a couple of spur trails that lead to other lakes. There are more cascades as the canyon steepens. Finally you get up to McGee lake.
The mosquitoes were out in force so moving is pretty much necessary. The trail is pretty mellow as far as incline allowing you to keep on moving. You get above the tree line and hike through some spectacular rock as well as a couple of cool lakes.
The pass is not where you expect it as the trail takes a long jog to the northwest and then the pass comes into focus. There was a little snow around but none that really obstructed the trail. I made it up to the top of the pass and decided to call it a day there. As the remainder is a rock slog of 1,200 feet to the summit in .7 miles. My son went the rest of the way up as I chilled out and he was back down in about 1.25. Here are some pics from the pass:
As you can see it was getting cloudy and per the weather forecasters, rain was going to start at about 11. Sure enough sprinkles began at that time. We got off the pass at 11:20 and got hit by different levels of rain on the way down. The last half hour the rain really came in with significant wind but by then we were all the way down. We met a large group of backpackers near the pass that were going to hike to Mammoth, they were heading for a wet cold day. The good thing for us on this hike, is the bottom section is typically hot and dusty and instead we had nice low 60s weather. The whole hike took nine and half hours. If you don't have to deal with heat this is a great canyon to hike. In the upper canyon we only saw three groups and they were all backpackers otherwise we had the canyon to ourselves and the color is quite striking.
Red Slate Mountain
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David R
- OG of the SG
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- Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2011 10:28 pm
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