High Sierra Topix

If one's final hike were in Mineral King, it should be to Farewell Gap, of course.

There are two ways to approach this thread. One is the place I’ve never been I must see before I die. For me, the answer is easy — Kaweah Basin and Red Spur.

Two, is the one place I’ve already been that has the most personal meaning emotionally/spiritually. That’s a lot more difficult. I have to take into account that it’s somewhere I’ll be able to actually manage to hike to at whatever advanced age and physical condition. Lyell Canyon is where we took our son on his first backpacking trip at age two. It’s also where my wife and I have both backpacked and dayhiked for over 30 years. Dusy Basin is also a place that holds special meaning for me and my family. We’ve spent magical days at the off-trail lakes with no other people to spoil the solitude and wonder. The combination of lakes and tarns with the far views of the peaks encircling the wide area beyond touches me in a profoundly, intangible, spiritual way that encapsulates the High Sierra. Humphreys Basin also falls into that category (if such a clinical word can be used in this context). The way Mt. Humphreys dominates the eastern horizon amidst what is, for me, an ideal timberline landscape fills me with a true sense that encapsulates all my myriad of ideas and feelings about the place I most love.

I would probably go over Shepards Pass. I love that area.

Texan

I'm not as well traveled as most on this board; plus I have a bad habit of returning to the same places rather than venture out to some place new each outing.

My joy is in long one day treks and off trail to the extent possible. I had not been into the Sierra when I first began hiking at the young age of forty (can you believe that).

One day at work I was talking with a friend who I learned had hiked extensively in the Sierra, so I asked him the same question posed here; if you only had one more place to hike to, where would you go? He didn't think about it too long, and replied "Lake Reflection". He said of all the places he had been in the mountains, the hike to Lake Reflection captured everything he enjoys about the mountains in one trip.

Of course I didn't have a clue about where Lake Reflection is or how I would get there, but alas, it became my first trip into the Sierra (solo no less). As it goes, I hiked into East Lake on the first day and made a day trip to Lake Reflection on the second day.

I don't possess the right words to describe it, but seeing the Sierra for the first time in that fashion was quite the experience for me. That single trip caused me to learn so much, see so much, enjoy all of the water (the Bubbs crossing was quite high as it was early in the season), and somehow get there and back unscathed.

And so for these reasons, that's the place I'd go if I only had one more place to hike to...

If my last trip were to a place I've already been, I'd be old and it would be here. I say this because my last 4 trips were to this place and all 4 times I was over 60.

This summer, my plans are for 10 days to Tehipite Valley, and a month for Mt Abbott, Ionion Basin via Lamark Col, Birch Mt., and Shepherd Pass. Maybe after that I'll know better what my last trip's really going to be.

Though the Glenn Pass up to Muir Pass has been on my mind, I'm leaning down to Shepherd...

If I had 10 days or so, and only one place, I might go back to Evolution Valley, as a previous poster mentioned. The time I was there, on a John Muir trail trek, it was smoky from the Santa Barbara fire. I would like to go there when the sky is blue, and also take in the area south of Evolution that I have not been to. McGee Lakes, Davis Lake, Lake Martha. Then again, maybe that is not my first choice...too many choices, too little time!
Tephite, Upper Mills Creek Lake, Gardiner Basin.......