Summer Eastern Sierra trip - Looking for advice!

[davidsheridan]

I really enjoyed our trip to Sabrina Basin. I would definitely focus taking the trail to Dingleberry lake and all of the other wonderful lakes beyond in that direction. (as opposed to the trail that leads to Baboon lakes, which is nice, but I preferred the other lakes a lot more).

I enjoyed making a basecamp at Sailor Lake. Great Location: The views of Picture Peak are awesome and you can see Moonlight Falls from some areas, and it is central to Hungry Packer, Moonlight Lake, and Midnight Lake. In the evenings before dark, we enjoyed exploring th beautiful area...following Sailor Lake's outlet stream in the direction of Topsy Turvy Lake into the broad open terrain with braided streams or hopping up to Moonlight Lake...

Day hiking opportunities are abound, you should definitely check out all of the lakes in that basin that are on-trail. They are all close by or involve short detours.

The cross country travel in this area is lots of fun and easy, it was suitable for us who are not experts or hardcore.

I really enjoyed a cross country jaunt where we started at Sailor Lake and gained the ridge between Midnight Lake and Hungry Packer and then headed towards Haeckel Col. We did not go all the way to Haeckel Col, but the cross country travel was easy, views amazing, fun terrain, and navigation was not a problem, as you are on a ridge and can see where you are. Upon return we dropped down to Hungry Packer with some easy but fun route finding.

Moonlight Lake is great, it is beautiful and full of fish. I enjoyed waking up early before sunrise and going fishing as the bite picked up as the sun rose.

The off-trail trip beyond Moonlight Lake onto Echo Lake is fun and interesting as you get into the dramatic higher altitude cirque with crystal blue waters of Echo Lake. There is a good-use-trail that can be found in most sections and it is obvious which direction you are going.

Hungry Packer Lake is a must-see, it has even better view of Picture Peak. Midnight is beautiful too and definitely worth a stop!

You can find trout in all of the lakes, I found the most consistent bite in Moonlight lake

We didn't spend much time at Topsy-Turvy, as it is guarded by enormous talus blocks that deterred us.

I basically just recommended everything I saw.... I am sure others will add different recommendations based on where they have spent their time. you can't go wrong.

Here are some pics from my 2018 trip (I think the 1st Sabrina Basin picture is 5 or 6 into this album): https://qq0u.app.link/e/imBdGpn02P

[Jimr]

One little caveat I'll add. Hungry Packer is a beautiful lake, but very, very limited camp spots. Sailor is a good choice for a base camp.