High Sierra Topix

Hey yall,

Narrowed my trip decision down to hitting the trial early tuesday morning and hoping to return to trailhead thursday. Thought that thousand islands lake would be a good few day trip. I see a few options to reach the lake. I noticed you can go from silver lake in june lake loop up to gem and then down to thousand lakes. Also the more popular is river trail head and take that up but that seems longer? Also I heard of reds meadow and the john muir as a access point to thousand islands lake. IF anyone has experience or advice about what trail to use or any great spots in the area for a 2 night trip in the high country let me know! thank you so much


Best,

bdandy

Others on this site may have more information about the availability of the trailheads in the Agnews Meadows area after last autumn's great tree blow-down. I read that the campground there is closed for the year. Silver Lake might wind up being your only option.

Silver Lake to 1000 Island seemed long and steep and steep to me. The trailhead is very low. I was coming from sea-level and was out of shape, got to the trailhead mid day on a hot day. I did not make it to 1000 Island in one day, stopping somewhere after Clark Lakes. But if you are relatively young, relatively acclimated, and/or relatively in-shape this is doable. I much prefer the Agnew Meadows trailhead, but it may not be available.

bdandy,
As kpeter pointed out, you may be in for a rough time if you try to access any trailheads from the Devil's Postpile area. It's not even clear whether the road is open. Probably, call the Mammoth Rangers for recent info. Clearly, access from Silver Lake is an alternative, and I'll second kpeter that it'll be more of a slog than the River or High trail. And, if there are downed trees there, too, you may be in for a long day or two. But, if any of those routes are accessible, it's a great area, so I hope it works!
cg

bdandy
I was questioning the same thing a couple weeks ago. Here is my post with great responses and links to other posts. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7687" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I have decided to go elsewhere and maybe head up there later in the summer.

Great info guys! So I assume agnews meadow trail head is the same thing as the reds meadow trail heads/river trail head? Also if I go up from silver lake I may just head to rush creek a bit past gem to save the time from cutting back down to thousand islands!

- Andy

I was looking at the Spooky Meadow Trail as we hiked up the Rush Creek Trail earlier in May (May 12th) and could see that the higher switchbacks (above the darker, wooded area on the photo above) were more than half obscured by snow and very steep, but I imagine it has all melted by now, more than three weeks later. The trail below the switchbacks was completely clear.

Nora

I'm sorry, don't mean to be a "grammar nazi" or whatever you want to call it, but it's Thousand Island (no S) Lake.

Anyway, I dayhiked it a few years ago from Agnew Meadows (though There is a LOT of red tape to get through to go from the Red's Meadow area) , and of the two routes, the High Trail is way better. You climb up out of the valley first, the traverse along the side of the opposite mountains (San Joaquin Ridge) at about 9,500'. Incredible views back toward Ritter/Banner and Minarets...it was the best part of the entire hike. The river trail is incredibly boring to me, and packed with people (and horses). In fact, I thought Thousand Island Lake was not that great. It's a beautiful lake, no doubt, but I've seen much better, and it's so overrun with people, it doesn't feel like a wilderness experience at all, IMO. In fact, we were even able to get cell phone coverage, so it kind of feels like you are in Mammoth Lakes' backyard. Actually, we thought Garnet Lake was much better, and definitely less crowded...Not trying to burst your bubble, but don't expect this to be your best backpacking trip ever...

I can see how cthenn would have that impression of overcrowding on a day hike. The end of the lake near the JMT is a virtual hotel for the JMT hikers. I usually hike to the far end of the lake and seldom see a sole there. As for scenic beauty--I like Garnet very much too, but the view of Banner over the island-strewn 1000 Island is a post-card classic.

Welcome to HST Cthenn!
My preference is to stay in between the trees since most folks what to be near the
shoreline also the western end doesn't see much traffic, but as KP mention there is
a reason a lot of folks like the lake, when the conditions are ideal the views are just
magical!

I usually hike to the far end of the lake and seldom see a sole there.

Good God, man! Soul, SOUL!

(Just having a little fun with the "grammar nazi" bit. :retard: )