TR Cottonwood Lakes to Shepard Pass 8/9/21-8/15/21

[grampy]

Thank you so much for posting this ! This describes one of my top “bucket-list” trips. The photos and route descriptions are excellent, and I’ll review it again when I get around to planning my own (though maybe slower ?) version in 2022 or 2023.

[SweetSierra]

Thanks for the trip report. I love Wright Lakes Basin. I especially liked your photos and description of crossing the talus field on the ridge crossing from Wallace Lake to Wright Lakes Basin. I did that same crossing with a thunderstorm of snow threatening on the horizon and remember we couldn't rush through it. At the time, the talus field seemed to go on forever. Your photo of the talus brought me back to that moment.
You also solved a question for me about the failure of the upper portion of the Shepherd Pass Trail which occurred years ago. We hiked up and down Shepherd Pass on the trip where we had to cross the talus field from Wallace Lake and I remember scrambling around a buttress on a rough makeshift trail. On a trip a few years ago, going down Shepherd Pass, I thought we'd scramble around the buttress again (I thought it was part of the Shepherd Pass Trail), but the trail had been repaired. It went around the buttress and was much easier to descend at that point.
Wallace Lake is beautiful. Wrights Lake basin is magical to me. I think I would hike up Shepherd Pass again just to spend several days there.