High Sierra Topix

I'm heading out next weekend and have done this trip a few times in mid to late July. I know North Lake campground and road is open. I've haven't gone this early before and wondering if anybody had the 411 on trail conditions?

The trail to Lamark Col seemed to me to be on the dry side. I came down this trail a few years ago in mid-season. The watersheds that drain the east side here are not very large (say relative to west side drainage of, for example, Merced River) so I would think that streams would not be exceedingly high. You may have to wade, but I doubt you would be stopped cold. Remaining snow should be well consolidated, particulary if you travel in the morning. A more serious problem would be steep icy snow. Crampons may be useful.

This brings up the point that one way to guess at the difficulty of stream crossings is to measure the size and elevation of the watershed above the crossing. If the watershed is small, there just is not enough snow to create high water more than a few days at peak melt. If the elevation is relatively low (such as Bridalveil Creek) then the runoff will receed early in the season. If the elevation is high (the Merced), then the stream will keep flowing year round and slowly drop after peak runoff. Last week in Yosemite, I overheard a tourist saying that he was surprised that "with this much snow" that the Merced River were not the size of the Mississippi! Well, the Merced was certainly running high (flood at 9 feet gage height) but the watershed it drains is a drop in the bucket of the watershed of the Mississippi. The Merced River, in flood stage, was very impressive given the size of its watershed.

After seeing a photo of Blue Lake from this past weekend, which by the way still has
a thin sheet of ice still on it, and quite a bit of snow on the trail, I would expect that
you will still have quite a bit on the trail.

Thanks Wandering Daisy and Maverick. I spoke to the ranger stattion this morning and they said the trail is open but might be on the muddy side. Snow is still above 10,500 ft, but I think with all the exposed granite bewteen Lower Lamarck and Wonder Lakes, I'll be good.

How was your trip? Everybody is looking for info on snow conditions, but I am also curious about your destination Wonder Lakes as I have never seen these lakes mentioned before. I'm doing a North Lake to South Lake over Lamarck Col trip the last week of July. After seeing that Wonder Lakes is your destination for your trip I became curious about it, and thinking about having that as our first nights camp.