Mary and I made our annual pilgrimage to Sequoia National Park on September 26-27. This year we were joined by our good friend Kevin. We were planning to backpack to Jennie Lake in the Sequoia National Forest, but found out on arrival that it was opening weekend for hunting season. Not wanting any part of the hunting frenzy, we decided to switch to a trail inside the National Park. We ended up deciding on the Lakes Trail.

Note: In a totally boneheaded move, I managed to set my camera to its lowest resolution (640×480). I was so disappointed when I got home, but I’m trying to put that behind me now. In any case, the full set of (small) photos are in my Sequoia - September 2009 Gallery.

Day 1: Lakes Trail to Emerald Lake (September 26, 2009)

With or plan changes, we didn’t get on the trail until after noon. It would be 5 miles and 2000 feet to Emerald Lake. The first mile or so is along a moraine at the end of the Tokopah Valley. It’s an unrelenting 3.2 mile climb to the Watchtower. This part of the hike is mostly forested. There are some views across the valley from the ridge of the moraine, but these disappear as the trail angles away for a time. After a sweaty climb, we reached the Watchtower with incredible views up the Tokopah Valley (left). We stopped here for lunch and posed for pictures (Kevin on the right).

It’s hard to get a feel for that Watchtower when you’re at the top of it. After the Watchtower the Lakes Trail skirts along a cliff above the Tokopah Valley. Looking back you can see the Watchtower standing tall above the valley floor (left). I really enjoy this part of the trail and the incredible views. It helps that this section is a bit flatter as well. After one last climb we dropped down into the bowl containing Heather Lake.

Heather Lake (right) is a beautiful lake. It’s a popular destination for day hikers and fishermen, but there’s no camping along its shores. We pushed on crossing another small ridge to reach Emerald Lake and Aster Lake further below. While we trying to decide if we wanted to camp here for the night or continue to Pear Lake, we ran across the Pear Lake ranger, Crystal. She told us that Pear Lake was pretty much full, which settled things for us. In the end, there was only one other group camping at Emerald Lake, so we were in heaven.

Mary and I had been to Pear Lake a couple years prior (see my Lakes Trail blog from 2007). At the time we had thought Emerald Lake was a nicer destination than Pear Lake and had vowed to return ad camp there sometime. We were fulfilling that vow with only one reservation: we knew there were pikas at Pear Lake. We really like pikas and were sad to think we might not see our fuzzy little friends. As we started setting up camp in sate number 5, much to our happiness, we could hear the little squeaks of pikas all around us. After setting up our tents and filtering some water, we found a little pika no more than 100 yards for our site!

The three of us chatted and ate dinner as the sun set. This was Kevin’s first “real” backpacking adventure, and seemed to be enjoying it. While chatting, Kevin noticed a sound coming from our backpacks. Mary and I investigated, finding a little mouse chewing through a side pocked on my pack where I had inadvertently left some pretzels. We chased it away and put all the food in our bear canister. The weather was fairly mild for late September, so we were able to keep warm without a campfire. After dinner we had some chocolate cake that Mary made using Matthieu’s recipe. It was delicious. After enjoying the stars and conversation, we turned in for the night.

Day 2: Emerald Lake to Trailhead and the General Sherman Tree (September 27, 2009)

I was the first one to rise the following morning. My first order of business was to pick up where I left off with the pikas. I found two of them very near where I had watched them the previous evening. I watched them for quite a while. See the video above as well as another I posted on YouTube. There are more pictures in my Emerald Lake Pikas Gallery. They are so cute.After spending some time with the pikas, I visited the relatively pleasant solar composting toilet then started working on breakfast. After breakfast, Mary and Kevin filtered water while I explored the area a bit. Once the sun was fully up and the air warmed, the pikas stayed in their dens. I had to satisfy myself with the beautiful views of the lake and mountains (picture on right).

It was noon by the time we set off down the trail.I guess we were enjoying the lake so much we were reluctant to leave. We made it to Heather Lake pretty quickly, stopping briefly for some photos (Ed and Mary in photo on left). The hike out is primarily down hill and so it was much easier. It was a good thing since the day was warming up.

Kevin and I posed on the trail above the Tokopah Valley (right). A little further along we reached the Watchtower, once again stopping for lunch.Over lunch, we chatted with a Sequoia Park employee who was on his way up to take water samples in the Marble Fork. There certainly are worse places to call your office.

We made it back to the car around 3, and decided to visit the General Sherman Tree. The General Sherman parking area is a short drive from the trailhead. It’s a 1/4 mile walk from the parking area down to the tree. We were all feeling good now that we didn’t have our packs to lug around. The General Sherman Tree is at the edge of the Giant Forest where there are plenty of sequoias to see. The General Sherman Tree is the largest tree by volume in the world!

On our way back to the parking lot, we were treated to a surprise. No more than 30 yards of the trail was a black bear fattening up for the winter (see video below and photos in my Bears Gallery). We watched it forage for quite a while before returning to the car. We made a quick stop at the store at Lodgepole for drinks and a snack, then headed out of the park. On the drive back, we stopped in Fresno for dinner, dropped off Kevin in Livermore and made it home around 11:30. All in all, it was a great trip to Sequoia. Too bad summer is over!

Day 3: Driving from West Glacier to Many Glacier (August 17, 2009)

We checked out of the Glacier Highland Resort to move to another area of the park. We picked up some huckleberry muffins from the Glacier Highland and espresso at the coffee truck in West Glacier and headed to the Lake McDonald Lodge to meet the girls. The huckleberry muffins were awesome: sweet, tart and tasty! Maggie and Molly had the next 3 days off and would be joining us in the Many Glacier/Swiftcurrent Valley and subsequently Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. First on the agenda would be traversing the Going-to-the-Sun Road across Logan Pass and down to St. Mary.

Since the girls had to be back to work in a few days, we had to take separate cars. It was still a bit overcast as we drove up to the pass. At the Logan Pass Visitor Center, we took the 3 mile round trip trail to the Hidden Lake Overlook. True to its name, the lake was quite hidden (photo on left). There were a few breaks in the clouds allowing us to catch brief glimpses of the waters below. The boardwalk out to the lake and back was engulfed in fog.

On the drive down the East side of the road, we stopped at a few different view points. One of the stops included a 3.6 mile hike to St. Mary and Virginia Falls. The short hike was nicely forested and we were able to sample some berries along the way. There’s a short of the girls (Maggie, Molly and Mary) at one of the falls on the right. Another stop we made was at the Wild Goose Island Overlook. Wild Goose Island it a tiny dot of land in the midst of St. Mary Lake (photo on left).

Before exiting the park on the East, we stopped at the St. Mary Visitor Center. This is where we talked to a ranger and deduced that it was in fact a wolverine we had spotted on the Highline Trail the previous day. We were pleasantly surprised to see an active osprey nest next to the parking lot. There were at least 2 nearly grown juveniles in the nest, and I caught one of the adults hovering at the edge of the nest (photo on right).

Just outside the East entrance of the park is the town of St. Mary. It’s a small town but has a highly recommended restaurant called Park Cafe. We stopped there for lunch. The menu is a bit eclectic with various international wraps and sandwiches, but they are known for their pie. We all enjoyed our meals and each sampled a slice of pie.

Driving North from St. Mary, we headed for the Swiftcurrent Valley. This area of the park has its own entrance and 7 miles of road into the valley. The Many Glacier Lodge and Swiftcurrent Motor Inn are located in this valley. This area of the park is known as Many Glacier due to the lodge and its proximity to a number of the park’s glaciers.We checked in to the Swiftcurrent and relaxed a bit while the girls tried to track down a couple friends.

After the break, we took a short 3.6 mile stroll to Red Rock Lake (on left) and Falls (on right). After the stroll, we drove back out of the park looking for wildlife ,and eventually made our way to the Two Sisters Cafe for dinner. We had a nice relaxing dinner to top off a nice relaxing day.

More pictures from Day 3.

Day 4: Hiking to Ptarmigan Tunnel and Iceberg Lake (August 18, 2009)

We had been planning to hike to Grinnell Glacier, but the trail was closed due to bear activity. Instead, we decided on hiking to Ptarmigan Tunnel and Iceberg Lake, a 14.6 mile journey. We had a quick breakfast of bagels and a few items the girls foraged from the employee dining room (EDR). One nice thing about staying at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn was that the trailhead was just outside our door. We were on the trial by 9:40am.

This was really 2 different hikes that started at the same trailhead. The trails share a couple miles climbing out of the Swiftcurrent Valley (picture on left) then fork in two different directions. We took the fork to Ptarmigan Tunnel first, since it was the harder hike. We were looking a a climb of a couple thousand feet over the next few miles. It would remain to be seen if we would still have the energy for Iceberg Lake on our return.

The hike to Ptarmigan Tunnel started climbing for about a mile, then leveled out a bit. There we many wildflowers along the trail, including some late season bear grass (tall flowers in picture on right). We reached Ptarmigan Lake around 11:30am. From there we had to ascend a few long, steep switchbacks to reach the tunnel high on the surrounding cliffs. At the top of the climb we had our picture taken (photo on left: Molly, Maggie, Mary and Ed). You can see a bit of Ptarmigan Lake behind us.

Ptarmigan Tunnel (on right) was built for hiking and horseback access to the Belly River Vally on the other side of the crest. It is tall enough for a person to ride through on horseback. I’m not sure why they didn’t just add another switchback or two to reach to cross over the crest rather than going through. Perhaps the rock was too unstable above. We did see a family of bighorn sheep bounding around up there. From the other end of the tunnel we had a beautiful view of the Belly River Valley and Lake Elizabeth (on left).

After enjoying the view and climbing around on the rocks a bit (mainly Maggie), we headed back through the tunnel and down the switchbacks to the lake where we stopped for lunch. There were a number of other people on the trail, especially since the Grinnell Glacier trail was closed. There were even a few backpackers heading for Lake Elizabeth. One guy, looking a bit worse for the wear, asked us if it was worth hiking to the tunnel. He said it was only worth it if the view was spectacular. None of us were ready to lay such a claim. I’m not sure if he ended up going to the top or not.

After lunch we retraced our steps back to the fork in the trail. As we were deciding wheter or not to continue up to Iceberg Lake, another group was deciding if they wanted to go to Ptarmigan Tunnel. We talked them into it. We were still feeling pretty good, so we headed up the trail to Iceberg Lake. We were excited to hear that a moose with a calf had been spotted along the trail. By the time we reached the area where the moose was spotted, it had moved. Fortunately it and the calf were still visible from the trail (photo on right). This was Molly’s first moose siting, and we were happy to be there to share it with her.

Iceberg Lake, as the name implies, fills with large chunks of ice as the spring thaw starts to break down the ice and snow on the cliffs above. Along with the ice comes a fine silt of ground rock which clouds up the water. The cloudy water, called glacier milk, produces an amazing milky blue color. By mid-August there wasn’t much ice left in the lake, though the water was plenty icy. We had another snack, posed for a few pictures, watched the squirrels and chipmunks scurry around looking for leftovers, then headed back down the trail. The last couple miles seemed to drag on forever, but eventually we made it. We were back at our room by 5 or 5:30pm. This would turn out to be our longest single hike of the trip.

After showering and resting a bit, Mary and I had dinner at the Swiftcurrent while the girls hit the EDR. After dinner, we decided to take another drive along the road looking for wildlife. We stopped at a pullout not far from the Many Glacier Lodge and Maggie yells out “bear!” We’re all looking across the river from where we’re parked thinking there’s no way she spotted a bear when we all realize a black bear is only about 15 feet away from the car. We watched it eat berries until it eventually wandered off in the fading light. Yet another great end to a great day!

More pictures from Day 4.

This past weekend (August 8-9) Mary and I went backpacking with a group of 12 in the Mokelumne Wilderness. The Mokelumne Wilderness is located in the Stanislaus National Forest between Yosemite and Tahoe in the Sierra-Nevada Range. Matthieu had found us a nice trail to Wheeler Lake. The trail started out from Sandy Meadow Trailhead along highway CA-4. We arrived there by 10:30am on Saturday and set out on the 4.8 mile hike to Wheeler Lake.

The trail wasn’t too steep with about 550 feet of gain and 600 feet of loss. We stopped for lunch along the way. At some point we weren’t sure if we were on the main trail or a side trail. We were beginning to look for a way to cross back to the main trail when all of the sudden we arrived at Wheeler Lake (picture on left). It was a pleasant surprise to arrive at the lake before anyone had expected to.

The group was a lot of fun. There were 12 in all: Matthieu, Ashley, Mary, Ed, Roch-Philippe, Anne-Sophie, Luc, Diana, Coco, Patrick, Karen and their baby Nicola. After arriving at the lake we set up camp near the West shore. We relaxed by the lake and a few people went for a swim in the chilly, brown water. Mary and I went for a walk around the lake, then it was time for dinner. Everyone was having a good time, even Nicola (on left).

Matthieu started a nice campfire (on right), which was very welcome as the evening chill set in. After dinner an intense card game ensued. As the night grew colder and the fire burned down, we all settled into our tents and sleeping bags.

In the morning we all had breakfast together, then the group split in two. Half headed back to the cars, and half went on a short hike up the ridge along the Frog Lake trail. Mary and I were in the latter group, joined by Matthieu, Ashley, Luc and Diana. The hike was about 1.5 miles to the top of the ridge. It was fairly steep at times, especially the last half mile or so. There’s a nice view of the Sierras from the ridge (picture on the left).

After a short time at the ridge, we headed back towards camp, stopping for a quick lunch. Back at camp we finished packing up and hit the trail again. The hike out was fairly uneventful, though the climbs seemed a little tougher than the previous day. Maybe it had to do with the extra 3 mile side hike we did up the ridge toward Frog Lake. We made it back to the cars by 4pm, then started the 4 hour drive back home.

Mary and I had a nice time. We really enjoyed meeting everyone, and hope to get another backpacking trip in before the summer is over. We also really liked hiking in the high Sierras without all the crowds we normally encounter in the National Parks this time of year.Maybe we’ll check out some other parts of the Sierras.

For a full set of pictures from this trip, check out my Gallery. You can see Luc’s photos on Flickr. Patrick has posted a slide-show.

Over the Independence Day 3-day weekend, Mary and I decided to head out on a backpacking adventure. This was our first backpacking trip of 2009. We had been wanting to do an early season trip in the Hetch Hetchy area of Yosemite for some time, but the trails weren’t so clear until recently. Hetch Hetchy is the lesser known sister to Yosemite Valley. Hetch Hetchy has a lot of the same features: sheer cliffs, waterfalls, and massive domes. There is one main difference, the O’Shaughnessy Dam, which turned the Hetch Hetchy valley floor into a huge reservoir. We had only day-hiked here once before. For the 3-day weekend, we decided on a rather ambitious (for us, anyway) 27 mile loop. A full set of pictures are in the Gallery and an annotated map is on Google Maps.

July 3: Hetch Hetchy to Lake Vernon

We decided to drive up to the park on the first day of the trip rather than the night before. We left home around 5am, and after stopping for coffee and snacks along the way, we arrived in Hetch Hetchy around 9:30am. After checking in at the ranger station to get our wilderness permit, we drove down to the backpackers parking area. After a quick bathroom break (the last for a couple days!) we were ready to hit the trail at 10:30am.

From the parking area it was about a 0.5 mile walk to the O’Shaughnessy Dam (pictured on left). The dam blocks the flow of the Tuolumne River creating the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (on right) which provides water and electricity to San Francisco 200 miles away. Apparently there has always been some contention about this dam, and there is talk of dismantling it even today.

Our first day’s goal was Lake Vernon, 10 miles away and 3,000 feet up. The trial starts by crossing over the dam. From the dam there are great views both across the reservoir and down the Poopenaut Valley hundreds of feet below. It was nice to see the reservoir fairly full, though it is still early in the Summer. There are lots of swallow zipping around as you cross the dam. We even saw a nest at the mouth of the tunnel at the far end. The trail proceeds through the tunnel and continues along the north side of the reservoir.

After hiking along the reservoir for a mile or so, we turned up the trail to Laurel Lake and Miguel Meadow. The next couple miles were composed of relentless switchbacks. Other hikers on the trail were talking about a bear sighting in the vacinity, so we had our eyes peeled. We were lucky enough to spot an adult female and her cub 20 feet above us on a grassy outcrop.We watched the bears casually browsing on vegetation for 15-20 minutes before continuing. There are more pictures of the bears in the gallery and a short video on YouTube.

During the long, hot climb up the switchbacks, we had some incredible views of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (see left). By the time we reached the junction for Miguel Meadows, we could no longer see the reservoir, and wouldn’t see it again for a couple days. The next 6 or 7 miles were tough but rather uneventful. There was still a fair bit of climbing involved, but at least there were tons of wild flowers and butterflies to keep our mind off the hike.  We passed through Beehive (on right), which is a huge meadow just before the 7 mile mark. We took a break here for a bit before tackling the final 4 miles.

Eventually we crested a rise to enter the Lake Vernon basin (picture on left). By this time it was nearly 6pm and we were starting to run low on water. We were both quite tired and were looking forward to dropping our packs for the day. Unfortunately, I got a little confused by the directions to the nice camp sites on the north west shore of the lake. After hiking some 3/4 miles out of our way, we gave up and headed to the south side of the lake near the main trail. By now we were both out of water so as soon as we hit Falls Creek, which empties Lake Vernon, we moved the minimum 100 feet from the trail and water and set up camp. We filtered some water, had a dinner of rehydrated Santa Fe Chicken and Rice, watched the bats devour some mosquitoes, then turned in for the night.

All photos from day 1.

July 4: Lake Vernon to Rancheria Falls

After a somewhat restless first night, we got up around 8am.Breakfast consisted of instant oatmeal and Thai tea. After filling our water bladders and breaking camp, we set off at 10:30am. Today we would be hiking from Lake Vernon over the ridge of Mount Gibson, though thankfully no where near the peak, down to the Tiltill Valley and finally to Rancheria Falls. We were a bit sore from the previous day, but the climb up the ridge wasn’t too bad. We had great views of Lake Vernon during the climb (see right). At one point we saw a helicopter fly around the lake, finally landing on the north side. I’m not sure what the deal was with that.

The switchbacks up the ridge were dotted with little mini meadows, which were a nice contrast to the otherwise bare granite. The initial climb was steep, but not too long. After that, the trail follows along the ridge for a while. Much of this portion of the trail passes through forests and meadows. Some of the forested areas are covered with lush, green ferns (right). Unfortunately, these lush areas were also infested with mosquitoes. Donning a long sleeve hiking shirt alleviated the worst of the attack, thought the onslaught kept us motivated to press forward. The meadows were full of wild flowers of varying kinds. One small meadow had wall-to-wall purple carpet (lower right).

The drop down from the ridge is fairly steep and the sun was hot. We met a number of backpackers struggling up the opposite direction.along the route we could hear the whomp whomp whomp of the blue grouse. What an interesting sound. From here the trail entered into the Tiltill Valley (left) with its wide meadows. This valley is one of the reasons we put off hiking the trail so long. Up until a few weeks before, you would have to wade across the meadows in thigh-deep water. Even as it was, we had plenty of mud and muck to traipse through.

One the climb out of the Tiltill valley, Mary spotted a snake crossing the trail. It ended up being a decent sized rattlesnake (left). We gave it plenty of room, but it seemed quite content sunning on the side of the trail. getting impatient, but a little nervous to pass so close to the rattler, we tried tossing some sticks and rocks. I think we only managed to peak its interest as it seemed to strike a hunting pose. The rattle never sounded, so I assume it was barely even aware of us. Eventually it moved off the trail and we continued forward. That was pretty much our only wildlife encounter of the day, though this one was a little closer than we would have preferred.

Crossing the final ridge we started heading down toward the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and Rancheria Falls. The day was hot and we were getting tired again, so we were pretty happy to see the reservoir appear in the distance (left), and eventually Rancheria Creek. We reached the Rancheria camping area at 4:45pm, again running low on water. We dropped our packs in a campsite and sat by the creek resting and filtering water. The cold water felt good on sore feet. After a dinner of rehydrated Curry Cashew Chicken, we decided to turn in early and save exploring the falls for the following day.

All photos from day 2.

July 5: Rancheria Falls to Hetch Hetchy

The second night was a bit more restful than the first. Since we had turned in early, we were up a bit after 6am. While heading away from camp with trowel in hand, we saw a huge buck run through the camp. After a breakfast of instant oatmeal and Vietnamese coffee, we hiked a bit back up the trail to a footbridge further up Rancheria Creek (left). From there we hiked back down to the camp then explored the nearby Rancheria Falls (right). We encountered a nude man bathing at the edge of the river and had no choice but to continue right past him to get to the falls.

We were on the trail by 9am for our last day of backpacking. After hiking along the cascading Rancheria Creek, we were quickly rewarded with beautiful views of the reservoir. Today would be the flatest hiking, but there were still plenty of ups and downs. As the trail neared the reservoir, we had terrific views of Kolana Rock standing sentry over the waters (right). Inside what would be the valley if it weren’t for all the water, you could definitely see that the scenery could give Yosemite Valley a run for the money.

Across from Kolana Rock is Hetch Hetchy Dome with Falls Creek (the same one that stems from Lake Vernon) tumbling over Wapama Falls on it’s Western side. The previous time we were here was over a Memorial Day Weekend, which is pretty much the high water mark in this part of the Sierras. At that time you didn’t really go across the falls so much as through them. This time around, while the falls were still pretty impressive, we barely felt more than a slight mist as we crossed the bridges. I posted a short video of part of the lower falls on YouTube. This is where we started to run across a lot of day-hikers exploring the trail along the reservoir. After the previous 2 days of hard backpacking, I was thinking they had the right idea.

Before the trip, we had read about rock climbing closures along the reservoir due to peregrine falcon nesting. I was doing my best to watch the sky and cliffs while trying to keep on my feet. I was rewarded when I spotted an osprey zipping past with a peregrine in close pursuit. It all happened so fast, I didn’t have a chance for pictures. Fortunately the osprey circled around causing the peregrine to give chase again. At least I managed a picture of the osprey.

We were on the home stretch now. We were now getting the West side view of the reservoir that we were used to (right). We ran across a couplebackpackers that we had seen on the first day. They camped by Laurel Lake both nights, but happened to hit the junction near the dam at the same time that we did. We chatted with them for the last mile of the trail and back across the dam. We made itback to the car before 1pm. Hot and tired, we had a quick bathroom break then jumped in the car and drove to Evergreen Lodge just ourside the park for cold drinks and and icee.

All photos from day 3.

Over all the trip was quite a challenge. I’m not sure that I’d be interested in such a long backpack adventure in the future, but I guess you never know. For now we can relive the good parts of the journey through the pictures I’ve posted. You can see the full set of pictures in the gallery. Enjoy!

September is the time when Mary and I make our annual pilgrimage to Sequoia National Park. This year we managed to go for three days: September 27-29. For the first two days we went backpacking to Eagle Lake in the Mineral King area. The third day was spent in the Giant Forest area.

September 27, Saturday

We managed to get on the road on Saturday morning around 9:30, which is pretty good for us. The drive to Mineral King is pretty long. With a slight delay due to a parade during a gas detour in Madera, it took us nearly 6 hours. We got on the trail at 3:15 PM. The weather was beautiful as displayed in the picture along Aspen Flat (on left).Our destination was Eagle Lake, a 3.4 mile hike with 2200 feet of elevation gain to a total elevation of 10,000 feet (click map on right). The first mile of the trail follows Aspen Flat and the East Fork of the Kaweah River. At this point we split from the White Chief Bowl Trail and climbed for another mile to a junction with the Mosquito Lake Trail. The final 1.4 miles follows along Eagle Creek.

Just before you reach Eagle Lake, you pass through a large talus (or scree) field. This is pika territory. We saw a couple but didn’t manage to get good pictures. We arrived at Eagle Lake (pictured on left) by 6 PM. We had the entire lake to ourselves, so we set up camp in a prime location overlooking the lake. After setting up the tent we filtered some water and made ourselves some dinner. We generally bring some dehydrated camping food. This time it was Jamaican BBQ Chicken from Backpacker’s Pantry. After dinner we had some hot chocolate and looked at the amazing, star-filled sky.It was getting chilly, so we crawled into our sleeping bags. The night was really quiet until the wind picked up a bit. At one point it blew off the rain fly which I quickly replaced and secured since it helped hold in the heat. The strange wind noises and the lapping water sounds emanating from the lake gave us both strange dreams. Or was it the Jamaican BBQ?

September 28, Sunday

I crawled out of the tent by 7 am. The sun was up but was blocked by the ridge along the lake. I scouted around a bit and found a friendly little pika near the lake shore. It was munching on some grass for breakfast. I went to get Mary, but we couldn’t find the pika, so we started on our own breakfast. We had some oatmeal and instant Vietnamese coffee. After breakfast we broke camp and packed everything up. Before heading out, we decided to explore around the lake a bit to find some more pikas. We could hear them calling from across the lake. We dropped our packs near the dam end of the lake and crossed to the other side.

It didn’t take us long to find some pikas out searching for breakfast, catching some sun, or simply striking a pose. Pikas are really cute. They are related to rabbits and are sometimes called rock rabbits. They live at high elevation it jumbles of rock called talus or scree. They spend their days collecting grasses which they pile up in “hay stacks” for the winter. Pikas can’t handle the heat and sadly could be one of the early casualties of global warming. Look for more pika pictures in my pika gallery.

After our visit with the pikas we headed down the trail. It was a little after noon so we stopped for lunch amidst another vast talus area just below the lake. Here we encountered a couple more pikas (including the one pictured previously). A bit further on we saw a couple deer with some fawns. They scampered off when they saw us. Somewhere after the junction with the Mosquito Lake Trail we encountered a black bear very near the trail. It completely ignored us and wandered off into the forest. I only managed to catch a couple shots of its backside. The rest of the hike was nice but uneventful. We were back to the car by 2:30.

After a slow drive back down the Mineral King Road, we made it to the highway and entered the main area of the park. We went to the Wuksachi Lodge for a shower, a nice dinner and a comfortable bed.

September 29, Monday

We were planning to hike around in the Giant Forest today. We needed to pick up some food for lunch, so we stopped at the store in Lodgepole. Unfortunately it didn’t open until 10, so we had to wait around. We ended up watching a short film on the bears of Sequoia at the visitor’s center. By the time we got something for lunch and got on the road, it was nearly 10:30. As we were driving along the General Highway towards the Crescent Meadow Road, we saw quite a few cars pulled off the road and people standing around. This usually means one thing: bears. Sure enough there was a healthy looking black bear foraging for food only 40 yards or so from the road. Many people stopped right in the middle of the road to gawk, causing what is often known as a “bear jam”. The bear was tagged (Yellow 56) and radio collared, so I presume it has had some trouble with the law. Fortunately is seemed to be doing perfectly natural bear things and totally ignoring all the on-lookers. We watched the bear for a good 45 minutes before it started to wander off. There are more pictures of the bear in my bear gallery. See the short video I uploaded to YouTube below.

We drove up to Crescent Meadow, still excited by our second bear encounter of the trip. Even the fact that it started to rain didn’t dampen our spirits. After eating lunch at the picnic area by the parking lot, we walked along Crescent Meadow (pictured on right) and over to Log Meadow. We also visited Tharp’s Log (on left) which was used as a summer home by Hale Tharp in the 1800’s. Due to the late start and the rain, we decided to call it a day and started our drive home. It was the end of another great trip to Sequoia National Park. There are many more pictures in my Sequoia gallery.