Minaret Lake TR
Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 6:57 am
Saturday I hiked up to Minaret Lake. Hard to believe how little snow there was for May - I encountered only a few easily managed sections of snow along the trail. Very few mosquitos hiking in up to the lake, and camp was pretty much bugless. While the lake was still frozen, there was little snow and tons of bare spots to set up camp.
Sunday I hiked over to Deadhorse Lake where I had hoped to camp the following night, but with the amount of snow that covered every inch of ground and not prepared to sleep on snow I remained at Minaret Lake, spending the day lounging and slowly walking around the lake. With fishing pole in hand, I found a few spots of thawed lake, where I surprisingly caught a few small ones. I saw tons of Coyote tracks, a coyote below the lake (overlooking what looked like bloody snow?), and was serenaded both nights to a coyote very close by, its calls answered only by echos through the basin.
Sunday I slipped on a rock with camera in hand and almost slide down some snow into the lake. Later while setting up for a shot I tried to turn my polarizer and it wouldn't turn. I looked at it and it was completely smashed in - must've taken a hit in the fall: at least it wasn't my lens, or my head
In all of three days, only saw a group of two dayhikers on Saturday. Got relatively cold both nights - below freezing - but it is still may.
Hiked out Monday, giving a pct hiker a lift into mammoth and arriving just in time to get a late lunch at whoa-nelly, and drove through Yosemite very slowly, spending some time to fish, soak up the views, and watch wildlife.
Hope to get more photos online soon, I'm still going through some shots and also waiting for my film to get developed, but here are a few (Couple more photos are on my Minaret Lake webpage):
Outlet of Minaret Lake
Sunrise
Sunday I hiked over to Deadhorse Lake where I had hoped to camp the following night, but with the amount of snow that covered every inch of ground and not prepared to sleep on snow I remained at Minaret Lake, spending the day lounging and slowly walking around the lake. With fishing pole in hand, I found a few spots of thawed lake, where I surprisingly caught a few small ones. I saw tons of Coyote tracks, a coyote below the lake (overlooking what looked like bloody snow?), and was serenaded both nights to a coyote very close by, its calls answered only by echos through the basin.
Sunday I slipped on a rock with camera in hand and almost slide down some snow into the lake. Later while setting up for a shot I tried to turn my polarizer and it wouldn't turn. I looked at it and it was completely smashed in - must've taken a hit in the fall: at least it wasn't my lens, or my head
In all of three days, only saw a group of two dayhikers on Saturday. Got relatively cold both nights - below freezing - but it is still may.
Hiked out Monday, giving a pct hiker a lift into mammoth and arriving just in time to get a late lunch at whoa-nelly, and drove through Yosemite very slowly, spending some time to fish, soak up the views, and watch wildlife.
Hope to get more photos online soon, I'm still going through some shots and also waiting for my film to get developed, but here are a few (Couple more photos are on my Minaret Lake webpage):
Outlet of Minaret Lake
Sunrise