Summit Lake - Hockett Meadows 5 day Advice

[Beantown]

Hey I just got back from Summit Lake and Blossom Lakes couple of weeks ago. You should go, defiantly go to Blossom Lakes. there was snow but should be gone by when you go. Here is my TR from another forum! ive been once before to summit lake, let me know if you have any questions.

there is a Video Below. Enjoy!

Just got back from a 4 night trip starting from Mountain Home Demonstration Forrest. We arrived 5/17 friday early evening and camped at hidden falls campground in Sequoia NF. the place was empty and we had it our selves, pretty much had the next 4 days alone, just the 2 of us!

Saturday morning we hit the trail along the Tule river thru an old Sequia grove in the NF up to Summit Lake crossing into Sequoia NP. About 6.5 miles or so. We set up camp and fished for trout at summit Lake, the north facing slope of the Lake had snow, what a treat.

Sunday we headed to Blossom Lakes, trudged through 3 miles of patchy snow drifts on a north side slope through the woods, made way finding a little challenging but fun. Its about 6-7 miles or so from Summit to Blossom. We camped at lower blossom lake, fished and explored the upper lakes. this is the most peaceful and beautiful place ive been to so far, we had it to our selves.

Monday we hiked back thru summit lake, stopped to fish, and then back to the hidden falls camp, stayed the night and headed home in the morning. its about a 4.5 hour drive for us from socal.

Here is a video from the trip. I dont have much patience for video editing but i like it.



here are all the pictures i took, slideshow

http://s1262.photobucket.com/user/beant ... om%20lakes

Tule River


Summit Lake


Lower Blossom Lake


One of many Upper Blossom Lakes

[maverick]

Hi Beantown,

Welcome to HST! Thanks for the TR, pictures and great video! How were the skeeterz?

[Beantown]

No skeeterz when we went this year in may. went last year in august, skeeterz at lower elevation along the Tule River but at summit lake were not bad at all probably cause the elevation is around 9,500 or so.

[Stevendanger75]

Hey I just got back from Summit Lake and Blossom Lakes couple of weeks ago. You should go, defiantly go to Blossom Lakes. there was snow but should be gone by when you go. Here is my TR from another forum! ive been once before to summit lake, let me know if you have any questions.

Wow this is really helpful, especially with it being so recent! Amazing pictures by the way, beautiful fish! Loving that video as well, can't wait to get in the mountains. Thank you again.

It's been twelve years, but I was with some scouts camping at South Fork Meadow, and the fishing in the S Fork Kaweah was hot. They aren't very big, but there are plenty of small pan-sized fish there. Mostly brookies, we also caught some rainbows and were surprised by a couple browns, too.

We also went up to Blossom Lakes, and the fishing there was great. Bigger fish than S Fork Kaweah. I only saw brookies come out of there.

They seem to be very spooky during the day and tend to sit in the deeper part of the lake (middle) and venture out in the morning and evening. Best spot to fish is off the west or south shore. The north and east sides are fairly shallow and unless you plan on wading out, might not be able to get out to where the fish are. Spinners and Kastmasters have worked well for me.

Good to know! I'm gathering all the info on fishing this area as possible, every bit helps. Once again, thank you very much to everyone who has replied. You guys have been instrumental in course changes for my coming trip. Finals have prevented me from replying often, but once summer hits, expect a few TR's!

-Bryan

[Beantown]

Stevedanger75,

The hike to blossom lakes to summit lakes doesn't take long, its about 6-7 miles with a few ups and downs. My advice is get an early start if you don't plan a lay over day there. when I do it again, plan for more time to explore upper blossom lakes, they seem endless. Follow the water falls up, you have to climb up some rocks to get there, and then after that there is another large lake we didn't make it to that was way far back up more lots of rocks. I only brought a bottle of water and snacks when we went to explore from the lower lake. It goes quite far back so bring what you need for hours and hours of exploring. We did not see any fish in the small upper lakes so don't bother dragging poles up there. The water is crystal clear!

Also, there is a bear that lives around after the long meadow area on the Tule River. we saw fresh tracks and scat on the way in, and on the way out more fresh scat. We saw bear tracks in the snow on the trail from summit to blossom. you need a bear canister for food.

A marmot chewed my cork hiking poles at summit lake so don't leave anything they can get to lying around.

[Snowtrout]

Forgot about the marmots up at Summit. They will walk right up to you and can be more problematic than the bears. Watch your food!!

[Stevendanger75]

Stevedanger75,

The hike to blossom lakes to summit lakes doesn't take long, its about 6-7 miles with a few ups and downs. My advice is get an early start if you don't plan a lay over day there. when I do it again, plan for more time to explore upper blossom lakes, they seem endless. Follow the water falls up, you have to climb up some rocks to get there, and then after that there is another large lake we didn't make it to that was way far back up more lots of rocks. I only brought a bottle of water and snacks when we went to explore from the lower lake. It goes quite far back so bring what you need for hours and hours of exploring. We did not see any fish in the small upper lakes so don't bother dragging poles up there. The water is crystal clear!

Also, there is a bear that lives around after the long meadow area on the Tule River. we saw fresh tracks and scat on the way in, and on the way out more fresh scat. We saw bear tracks in the snow on the trail from summit to blossom. you need a bear canister for food.

A marmot chewed my cork hiking poles at summit lake so don't leave anything they can get to lying around.

Thanks for the info! I just told my group to go buy canisters. I have one, but we are gonna play it on the safe side.

Aside from a fire permit, are there other permits I need to purchase for this area? I've never been out of MH State Forest before. I'm planning on extensively looking all of this info up once finals are over, but i'm just being lazy right now...

[Beantown]

regarding the bear canisters fyi, they are required in the NP I believe and not the NF, so once you cross into summit lake its NP.

you need a campfire permit for your stove, however there are already fire restriction in effect this year in the NF, no fires, and no fires in the NP below 9,000 usually but I think its no fires now. When you can have campfires, there a camps at summit lake on the NF side where there are existing fire rock rings. Blossom lakes is at about 10,000 feet. we did see an illegal fire rock ring there.

NF fire restrictions: http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/sequoia/a ... rdb5418589

you will need a wilderness permit from the Springville ranger station for your trip, they are free, no quota and allow you to enter the NP from the NF. you can fax it in and they mail it back to you, or fax it back to you.

The trails are easy to follow and well marked at all the trail intersections.