High Sierra Topix

My friend, my son and I were planning on going to Eagle Lake in 2 weeks but there is still 8 feet of snow and the lake is frozen (Sequoia- Kings Canyon). I need to find a new place to take him.

I'm looking for a lake no more than about 5 miles hike in that isint snowed in. Any suggestions?

I really don't want to tell him that the trip is off.

Hi Rally - Welcome to the HST board.

Hard to tell what the conditions will be like in two weeks; I suspect a lot of the snow will have melted by then.

Have you ever looked over in the Sierra National Forest near Courtright Res? There are several nice lakes nearby - I would think that access to Courtright will be open by then (naturally you'd have to phone to confirm). It's about 4.5 miles in from the trail head and the lake is at 9400 feet ASL.

When I was up at Cliff Lake there was a guy there doing some fishing.

Here's a pic of Cliff lake and some more info:
http://www.theradioroom.org/ThreeSisters.htm

South end of Cliff lake :
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A lot of reservoirs but not many natural lakes at lower elevations on the west slopes of the Southern Sierra. Those that are, not far from trailheads, tend to be heavily fished. Shawn gave excellent advice. We fished Cliff Lake and caught lots of decent sized brook. Picturesque Lake too. There are some other smaller lakes both in the Dinkey and Kaiser Wildernesses. About the only other larger sized one I know below 9.5k that would work would be Devils Bathtub out of Edison Reservoir. ...David

The lower lakes out from Onion Valley Trailhead...Flower, Matlock, Bench will probably be free of snow by that time. All south facing...very pretty too, and only a few easy miles in.
See: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=36. ... -118.36111

The last report I had seen for Courtright said the road might not open until July.

Backpacking to 8K+ lakes will be difficult if not impossible in most areas. AND if you get to a lake of that elevation AND find it to be thawed, the fishing will be poor. This is, of course, IMHO.

Fish Bully and I just got home yesterday from hiking to a western Sierra 8.7K lake. I cannot stress how difficult it was getting there due to the high snow levels. We found the lake to be thawed only in the inlet and still slush/ice over much of the main body.

The fish are still very lethargic and still trying to wake up from the hibernation thingy as well. We caught no fish.

Here's a pic taken from the inlet:

Here's the restroom at the trailhead: