High Sierra Topix

What is THE most remote location that you have ever been to in the Sierra's? Including lakes, mountains, canyons, etc. I am thinking in terms of milage away from any signs of civilation (excluding established trails). Would it be somewhere in the northern reaches of YNP perhaps? I am hoping some veterans on here will have some really interesting places that few ever reach due to technical ability, distance, effort or a combination.

I judge a place being remote in different ways. Some areas are not very far from a trail yet are almost never visited. When it comes to saying away from any trail that would probably have to be Ionian Basin or Goddard Creek. It's hard to find places in the Sierra that will take you a great distance away from any trail.

Interesting question.

For it to feel truly "remote" it would have to be a long way from established trails - not just roads. For instance, Grouse Meadows in Leconte Canyon is very far from any road-end and is therefore very remote if you use "distance from roads/civilization" as your only criterion. However, it's smack dab on the John Muir Highway and is not technically difficult to access.

You mention northern Yosemite. There are trailed sections of far northern Yosemite that are probably as far in from a road's end as Grouse Meadows is. Also not technically difficult to reach; but they may have a more remote feel just because there is a lot more solitude there than on the JMT.

I hereby predict a slew of posts about SEKI destinations including the Black Divide/Tunemah/Goddard area; Dumbbell Lakes; and Kaweah Basin

- Elizabeth

There are some questionable aspects to voicing widely available public responses to this particular type of inquiry. What's more, the value of discovering - or merely endeavoring to discover - such places independently is difficult to overstate.

I am new to the forum, and I live in Ohio. I was just in Tehipite Valley. I would say the area downstream from Little Tehipite Valley, or the ridge above Tehipite Valley that drains into the Gorge of Despair would be as remote as anything that you could want to find.

They are all over the place, teeny over-looked little basins that don't have much in the way of interesting or distinguishing features, or are such a heinous bushwhack or nasty steep rubble route they aren't worth the trouble. And there are even a few of these in the central Sierra, north of Sonora Pass that I won't call out here, where you can run across bear and so on with no sign of people (recently anyway). Overall my point is that most of the remote=seldom visited are places that are not an over-looked Shanghai-la, but rather places that are a grunt with few up-sides.

Weasel wrote:I am new to the forum, and I live in Ohio. I was just in Tehipite Valley. I would say the area downstream from Little Tehipite Valley, or the ridge above Tehipite Valley that drains into the Gorge of Despair would be as remote as anything that you could want to find.

The ridge above the Gorge of Despair is part of Monarch Wilderness - highway 180 runs at the bottom of it just the other side. While it's definitely steep and wild, strenuous, and not frequented by people as a result, it's not remote in the sense that it's far from the road.

The Goddard Creek area--Finger Lakes Basin is remote, and the Blackcap Basin just on the other side is pretty far from everything. The White Divide and Leconte Divide are places where you can be all by yourself. The Monarch wilderness is the same. Rugged and remote.

Remote is also a state of mind. At night from Bunchgrass "Flat" below Tunemah Pass you can see the lights of Hwy 180 looking across the canyon, but they feel like they're a century away from where you camp on a 5% slope.

I agree the distance from roads is a poor criteria. In some cases, it is true, but in many, not so much. Spiller Canyon in Northern Yosemite is less than 10 miles from Twin Lakes, but feels like you are Lewis and Clark exploring the West in the early 1800s. In contrast, many parts of the JMT (like the aforementioned LeConte Canyon) are a long way from roads, but are a virtual freeway. When I was on that part of the JMT coming down from Muir Hut, I played leapfrog with a pack horse group of 20 people. Definitely not a "wilderness" experience or feeling of being remote! I just needed to hop over Black Giant Pass into Ionian Basin, and I would have felt a world away.