California, Day 1 - Mineral King, Sequoia NP

Our trip to California was a success; nice weather all week and some unique wildlife sightings.  A lot nice hiking too!  We started off getting from LA to Three Rivers, California where we first traveled into Sequoia National Park.  Our first day was spent it the Mineral King area of Sequoia; this area was reached by a long, single lane, winding road...it took about an hour.  There were no services along the way.  When we arrived, the ranger station was open and we overhead the ranger telling a group of backpackers that all of the water lines were frozen from the night before.  It was a bit chilly.  The ranger confirmed that our hike choices were appropriate and we continued another mile or so to the trailhead of Sawtooth Peak; we would be doing a day hike to Monarch Lakes (9.4 miles, 2,500 vertical).

 

 

Unlike other trips, the ranger advised us to take all food out of our car and place it into the bear lockers...even for a day trip.  Black bear activity is present in the park.  We started up the trail.

We saw a number of backpackers coming down from the previous night.  One told us that the first 1/2 mile or so of the trail was the steepest - he was right.  After this, it was just a steady uphill without many steps, sticks, or rocks in the way.

As we continued to see backpackers, we continued to get the stories about snow.  Up at sawtooth peak, they had gotten 8 inches the night before...at the lakes there was 6".  They said it started out as a sleet, and that the winds were horrible.  It didn't sound like anyone had a real good night.

 

In this picture, you might be able to notice the clouds coming in at our level.   It was forcasted to be a sunny day, but you just never know in the mountains.

 

 

As we got up over the treeline, the trail was still perfectly cut.  The snow was melted in some areas, but stuck around in others.

 

The views were exceptional.

 

We saw about 30 people on the trail, but all but four (including us) were dayhikers.  Everyone else was either going up or coming down with backpacks.

The lake was a very pleasant area; there were still three or so groups up there when we arrived from the night before.  One had a fishing pole and said it was very easy to catch the fish, but that they were all very small.  

 

We did not go up to the upper lake for there was not a solid established trail and the snow was still sticking around on the rocks making for some less than optimal conditions.  

 

On the way down, the clouds had rolled in and the views all blocked.  It was a much different experience than the way up!  Next up was a couple of miles on the Atwell-Hockett Trailhead.

 

When arriving at the parking lot, we saw two backpackers getting back from a multi-day trip.  They said we were the first people that they had seen in a number of days.  While there was one other car, nobody else was around.  We counted just a few people in the campground on the walk over to the trailhead.

 

We did a portion of this hike in order to get a glimpse of some sequoia trees; Atwell is the highest grove in the park.

 

While there were some sequoias, they were not as plentiful as in the Giant Forest area (next day).  But, it was nice having the trail to ourselves.

 

Rob did spot this buck just off the trail.

 

We decided to turn around after about a mile.  We hit a bridge over a river with a small waterfall - it was a very pretty area.  I do believe if we would have continued on, we would have seen more sequoia for from the map, it seems this is where the Atwell Grove really started.  Knowing we had a slow, winding road trip back to Three Rivers, we decided to make this the turn around point.

 

 



The town of Three Rivers was very quiet; when stopping in at the market, the checker (oddly enough wearing a Green Bay Packers jersey) said that they pretty much close up at Labor Day.  More about this in upcoming posts...