2022 Sierra Lake Tour

East of Mammoth 2022

First hike of 2022 … Listed as a “Beginner” hike (nope, it was not) this took Keith, Erin, Heidi and Jerry on a tour of Thousand Island Lake and the others in the region to the north west of Devil’s Postpile. There were three challenging passes on the tour and plenty of wonderful lakes to see.

Map on CalTopo: https://caltopo.com/m/EU1LP

Here is the .gpx of the trek: https://jerrypierce.org/Files/2022-Lake-Tour.GPX

Our adventure started by a leisurely drive to Mammoth and a stay in the Old Shady Rest campground behind the visitor center in Mammoth. AND a nice dinner at the local pub…

We parked at the Mammoth Ski Lodge and took the bus to Agnews Meadows trailhead. Left our food stuff at the bear box at the trailhead and off we went up to Clarke Lake.

A delightful 7 mile hike, although the last half mile was a bit steeper (little did we know that the next day it would look like child’s play).

On River Trail (our permit)

Our home on the peninsula…

Clarke Lakes are a wonderful destination for the night.

Nothing like the Milky Way in the Sierra…

Day 2 morning … off to Thousand Island Lakes and beyond… Mt. Banner of the Minarets in the background

Our first “challenge” of going over White Bark Pass (Not even mentioning Garnet Pass). Our first real taste of “off trail.”

Slightly happy to make it to the top…

Camping at Nydiver Lakes – no trees!

Beautiful Morning

Our first (and only?) close encounter with snow.

Mt. Ritter on the left, Mt. Banner on the right with four hikers going to the top in the snow in the center.

Lots of wonderful water features.

The butterfly seemed to land and pose for us…

The climb down to Minaret Lake…

No one fell in!

Iceberg Lake – the trail is just above Keith’s head – steep! We thought this was the last challenge for the day… nope, the boulder field past the pass was almost worse.