Dusy and Palisade Basins, July 6th - 8th, 2012

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David and Karen
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Dusy and Palisade Basins, July 6th - 8th, 2012

Post by David and Karen »

*** David Here - this is a cross post of a report my wife just submitted to nwhikers.net - this forum was a great help to us when we were doing research. ****

I’m going to make a bold statement here and say that the area we visited on this report was my favorite area of all during our 16 day trip to the Sierras. That is pretty high praise because I REALLY like the Thousand Island Lake area as well.

Once we stepped off the trail on the far side of Bishop Pass we only saw one party walk past us in the distance during the 3 whole days, we had complete solitude.

The trailhead leaves from the scenic South Lake, west of Bishop California. Did I mention it is at 9750 ft? Bring your extra lung! This trail passes by many scenic lakes that will keep your attention and cool you off on a hot day.

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First up is Long Lake.

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Then a turnoff to Ruwau Lake, Spearhead Lake, Timberline Tarns, Saddlerock Lake (home to the largest cloud of squeeters I’ve ever seen on trail) and finally Bishop Lake.

Then the fun begins, the ascent to the pass. By this time in the trip our bodies had acclimatized fairly well, however we were consistently noticing the elevation at around 11,500 ft.

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We attained the pass at 11,972ft.

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Surprisingly the view towards Dusy Basin was not that great. You couldn’t see any lakes and the pass itself was quite long and flat.

We dropped just over the pass and with a quick check of the map and altimeter, our boots left the trail and we headed cross-country towards our camp for the night, Lake 11,393.

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This is the largest lake in Dusy Basin and the one I decided was the best place for a photographer to spend the night based on internet forum discussions, the topo map and Google Earth (my favourite tool for trip planning – see my video under my Limestone Lakes trip report from last summer if you don’t believe me!).

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We sidehilled our way across in attempt to stay above the lake. What surprised me the most was looking at the map, everything seems relatively flat. I could not believe we could not see the lake until we were almost on top of it.

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What a glorious place this is! If you ever want to feel small and insignificant, this is a good place to be!

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So we setup camp for the night and I went for a VERY short and frigid dip.

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We did the usual wander around camp and engaged in some dancing for my 2012 Hiking Year in Review video. We didn’t do much, as after busting out a couple moves we felt drunk from the lack of oxygen.

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Sunset proved to be fairly boring with little drama in a clear blue sky.

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The next morning after playing with the friendly marmots we packed up and headed towards Knapsack Pass.

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We had also considered Thunderbolt Pass however we knew it was more difficult and with a full pack opted for the easier route. While there are portions of boot beaten path through the boulders and ankle twisting rocks, we lost and found it many times. The route was not as easy as I had thought it would be, it took a lot of concentration and was tiring with the full pack.

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Once we got to the pass we refueled and debated our best route down as the far side was pretty steep.

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Here is where we made the mistake. The boot beaten path appeared to be going up and we wanted to go down. So down we went and it was challenging and awkward. On the way back out the next day we picked up the climbers path and indeed we should have followed the tread upwards.


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Again I surprised that from the high vantage of the pass, we could not see our destination of lake 11,523. Once on more level ground we made quick work of the basin and arrived at our destination for the night.

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It was still early, but man it was flipping hot! There was a little rock formation built up, obviously made as a stove shelter, but it was large enough that we used it as “our fridge”. There was literally no shade whatsoever in this place and we crammed all our food and water into the fridge to try to keep it at least lukewarm instead of boiling.

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We wandered around a bit, but once again I was the party pooper and elected not to travel over to Potluck Pass because the heat was killing me and we still had many hard days ahead of us.


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After a comfortable night we got up, packed up and headed back up Knapsack Pass. Traveling from the pass back to the trail by the first Dusy Basin Lake seemed to take forever.

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We were relieved to be out of the crummy rock and back onto dusty trail.

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The hike out was long and very hot, we were melting. By the time we got back to the car and down into Owen’s Valley the car thermometer said it was 104 dF. Yikes! I think I consumed my smoothie from Schats Bakery (best yummys in Bishop!) in one gulp!
Last edited by David and Karen on Fri Jan 18, 2013 7:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
Karen's Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48937858@N07/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Zenfolio site: http://weekendswithmarmots.zenfolio.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Vaca Russ
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Re: Dusy and Palisade Basins

Post by Vaca Russ »

David and Karen,

Great TR! How did you post all of those pictures? I can only post 10 at a time.

Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing. :)

Thanks,

-Russ
"...Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host and then a master?"

Kahil Gibran.
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rlown
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Re: Dusy and Palisade Basins

Post by rlown »

if you host your pictures off this site, you can post as many as you want. That's not a slam on this site, just the way it works.
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maverick
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Re: Dusy and Palisade Basins

Post by maverick »

Thanks for sharing another great set! That large lake in Dusy Basin can be magical
if all the right conditions fall into place but as photographers we know that rarely
happens.
Professional Sierra Landscape Photographer

I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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SSSdave
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Re: Dusy and Palisade Basins

Post by SSSdave »

Hi David, nicely crafted report Karen. Looks like early to mid August maybe? Many would rate Ritter Range and Dusy Basin at the top of a list of the Sierra for aesthetic quality. Of course timing is everything. Have visited a number of times. Prefer back further from the peaks than at 11393 where the overall upper basin is more easily framed and its a bit more green. Now you know the other side of Knapsack is just as sterile looking as 11393.
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