tablelands questions

[frozenintime]

i’m planning a trip through the tablelands this summer after reading maia’s amazing report.

her route, which we might follow exactly:

wolverton > HST > tamarack lake > lonely lake > lake 11,200 > wolverton


a couple alternate route ideas that i'd appreciate your thoughts on:

- swapping lake 11,200 for the large lake in table meadows. there seems to be unanimous consensus that the view of the great western divide from 11,200 is out of this world, but for some reason i'm enamoured with the table meadows lake, mostly from seeing a single photo of it on the sierrahiker site (http://www.sierrahiker.com/ElizabethPassLoop/index.html). thoughts from anyone who’s been there?

- swapping wolverton > HST for lodgepole > twin lakes trail > silliman pass, and then XC south passed beville and crescent lake to the head of box canyon and into the tablelands. from there, i'd have to rethink the rest of the trip, but there are no shortage of tablelands and tablelands-adjacent destinations. i've done the high sierra trail (though my partners have not), so this would be a way to not repeat some ground i've covered, though that's not a big concern for me.

[wildhiker]

Here was my favorite trip in the Tablelands, in August of the heavy snow year 2011:
Start at Wolverton, first night camp at Alta Meadow - great sunset view of the Great Western Divide.
Second day up to Moose Lake - austere, but dramatic. Great views of the GWD at sunset and again early morning. We camped there, but you could push on.
Third day I intended to just go to Lake 11200+ on the rim above Big Bird Lake to camp and maybe climb Big Bird Peak, because we had camped there on a previous trip and I thought the view was the best. But the mosquitoes were bad that year so we skipped Lake 11200+ and headed west past Lake 10559T, up the broad slope to the NW then down the ridge to the little valley with Lake 10410T and over the pass directly north of it (I think it is called Tableland Pass) to camp on an open slope at the headwaters of the South Fork Sugarloaf Creek, with a great view north of the Monarch Divide and higher peaks beyond.
We made it out from there in one long day heading past Crescent Lake, Lake 9518T, and Beville Lake to pick up the trail over Silliman Pass and down to Lodgepole, where we caught the shuttle back to Wolverton.

-Phil

[maiathebee]

Aww yay I'm glad my trip report was inspiring!

Lake 11,200 has more of a view of Big Bird Peak and the Glacier Ridge than it does of the GWD, which is obscured from there by a few hundred foot rise. I agree with wildhiker about Alta Meadow and Moose Lake being wonderful. If you camp at Moose or Alta you'll already get an amazing sunset view of the Great Western Divide, which might satisfy you enough with the big peaky-peak views so that you could confidently skip Lake 11,200. I did a one-nighter to Moose and back via Alta Meadow in 2014 if you wanna see some photos, here's a TR on my blog. I tried to look for ways to work in Alta Meadow and Moose on my last trip, while also wanting to see Lonely Lake and the Tablelands, but couldn't figure out a way to make it work.

I did really love the views of the Hamilton drainage from the high connector trail between Bearpaw and Tamarack drainage, and Tamarack Lake itself is really something special with a magical waterfall and a rock ledge you can walk way out into the middle of the lake, plus if your timing is right all the flowers in the valley below Tamarack are just jaw-dropping. And if you start at Wolverton like I did and take the high connector, you're really only on the HST for a short segment between Methren and Bearpaw. I guess I'm kinda advocating for not skipping that area.

I think it actually doesn't much matter what you choose, everything around that whole area is just spectacular.

[oldranger]

FIT I loved the trip between Beville and the tablelands. The micro topography between Beville and Crescent is a bit challenging but enjoyable. I don't think I ever took the same route twice. From Crescent you can either head directly to the Tablelands or divert over to Box canyon first. I don't think I ever approached the Tablelands from Box Canyon though so I can't comment on the difficulty. have done so from both Fergusons and the route finding again is challenging but if done right never exceeds easy class 2 at the most. Hitting the heads of all 4 canyons is really fun and it is unlikely you would meet anybody once you leave Ranger Lake.

[TehipiteTom]

a couple alternate route ideas that i'd appreciate your thoughts on:
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- swapping wolverton > HST for lodgepole > twin lakes trail > silliman pass, and then XC south passed beville and crescent lake to the head of box canyon and into the tablelands. from there, i'd have to rethink the rest of the trip, but there are no shortage of tablelands and tablelands-adjacent destinations. i've done the high sierra trail (though my partners have not), so this would be a way to not repeat some ground i've covered, though that's not a big concern for me.

I did a loop somewhat like this, except I cut off the Twin Lakes trail and up to Silliman Lake, then over the crest east of Mt. Silliman (with a detour to the peak--highly recommended) and down to Crescent. This was a great route, though the north side of the pass was steep and loose enough to make me nervous (just a short section, though). Crescent Lake is gorgeous. From Crescent I skirted the head of Box Canyon and it looked to me like it would be no problem dropping into it (and climbing back out). Camped at Lake 10559, hiked out the next day. Trip report here.

[wildhiker]

FIT - also be flexible about your plans based on the weather at the time. The Tablelands are completely open and exposed, with not a tree in sight (except a few at Lonely Lake). I wouldn't want to camp up at any of the high parts in thunderstorms.
-Phil

[frozenintime]

thanks for all the replies!

interesting that seemingly no one has been to that large lake in table meadows! it's hiding in plain sight, folks! i suppose those going to the tablelands may be looking for the more austere granite atmosphere, but that lake looks like a gem.

maia, it's an amazing report! so well written and photographed. are you using something other than an iphone camera? i'd guess so, but i've been wrong before.

old ranger, thanks for the info. the lakes at the head of box canyon look inviting as well.

tom, i had already read your report. i don't know if we will feel comfortable descending the north side of silliman. similarly, there's a chute that's part of skurka's kings canyon high basin route that would take you from the plateau between mt sil and silliman lake to the horse creek drainage (and on to tablelands), but i've read a couple unhappy reports about ascending that as well. not that either are extremely dangerous, but this trip is aiming to be on the pleasurable side of the sufferfest rainbow.

wild hiker, certainly noted about how open it is. i tend to like to camp lower, but it's hard to envision a way to spend a good deal of time in the tablelands without some exposed camping. though, to reiterate, the large lake in table meadows has some trees! and is nestled several hundred feet beneath granite walls to the south and east.

thanks all

[AlmostThere]

I have been to the large lake above Table Meadows a couple of times - camped there once, passed it going to Pear Lake another time. Fishless, but beautiful. I call it the Lake of the Undead Marmot. Not a lot of campsites in the Tablelands that let you sink a bunch of stakes (we don't camp on greenery) but some twine or sand anchors help.

sekihiker talks about not going high enough on the traverse from Table Meadow to Lightning/Pterodactyl - he is correct. I didn't go high enough either the first time I went. Talus hell. When going the opposite direction, we came up from the Elizabeth Pass trail on the steep slabs from the east, crossed Pterdactyl, traversed high over toward a green swath on the ridge on the other side of the "bowl" and went up the green to the tippity-tip top of the divide. The shortest, easiest traverse to the top of Tableland Pass and a view of Big Bird, and then on to that lake above Table Meadow. Very nice, very easy.

[frozenintime]

thanks for the info!

i wanted to double check that we're talking about the same lake. since you use the phrase "above table meadows" it makes me think of lake 10,559. i was thinking of the lake marked on this map (https://mapper.acme.com/?ll=36.61631,-1 ... %2Cunnamed).

anyway, thanks for the reply:)

[AlmostThere]

thanks for the info!

i wanted to double check that we're talking about the same lake. since you use the phrase "above table meadows" it makes me think of lake 10,559. i was thinking of the lake marked on this map (https://mapper.acme.com/?ll=36.61631,-1 ... %2Cunnamed).

anyway, thanks for the reply:)

I don't camp in greenery, so no, I mean Lake 10559. Those little ponds in the meadow seem to have more fragile environs around them.