High Sierra Topix

Hey all. Does anyone have any up-to-date info on just how smokey the Western slopes are, and will be this weekend? Other than somewhat vague air quality alerts on the NOAA website, I can't seem to find anything.

I'm thinking about heading in from Edison, Florence, or maybe Road's End in SEKI. A few weeks ago I drove all the way to the Eastern Sierra, Taboose Creek trailhead, just to choke on smoke and see absolutely no mountains. I don't mind a little haze, but sure would like to see something!

Thanks for the help. ~Kurt

I'm curious, and a little worried, about this as well. The NWS has issued an air quality alert due to the Plumas Co. fire for many of the western sierra and central california county's. My plans were for a western side trip, but all these fires has me undecided where to go now.

trailblazer, I just spoke with a ranger at the High Sierra District station. Apparently it is hazy, but not as bad as the lower elevations. I also found a webcam link from Sierra Summit that may help.

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?secti ... id=3394108


But after my horrible trip to the Eastside, I'm still unsure what to do...

Have a good weekend!

.

Looks pretty smokey / hazy from the Yosemite cam.


http://www.yosemite.org/vryos/TurtlebackCam.htm

My wife and I spent 5 days in the Bear Lakes-Merriam-East Pinnacles area (via Pine Creek trailhead and that trail has been amazingly improved by a trail crew since I last went in) and came out on Saturday (8th). The last two days were very hazy, and as people have inferred from the webcams, it's staying that way! You might want to keep looking at webcams to see how it evolves!
cgundersen

I just got back from hiking around the Silver Divide sat-mon. The smoke kept its distance and there were clear skies. This morning (mon) I woke up with the view north to Ritter and Banner near Silver Pass almost completely obscured from smoke/haze. Skies where I was were clear with a tiny bit of haze, and seemed clear all up to Mammoth Mtn, but north of there, yuck - the cutoff for the majority of smoke seemed to be the San Joaquin drainage.

I hiked out of Courtright last week and the haze was there but not too bad. I also hiked up to the Boole Tree in Sequoia Nat'l Forest overlooking Kings Canyon and the haze was terrible. It would have been a nice view otherwise (this was on Friday).

I car camped last night (Monday) at Courtright and the skys were exeptionaly clear. That could have been due to the strom that blew through around 5PM or so, but it was great!