Granite Pass/ Tehipite Valley Side trip / Palisade Lakes input sought

[KT5519]

Good morning lizgreer; I do have some trail updates for you.

The trail between Simpson Meadow and Tehipite Valley has not had maintenance performed on it since 2021, so expect it to be overgrown. No flyovers were done of that area after last year's heavy precipitation events, so status of any slides or other trail damage is not known. There are currently no plans to visit and perform maintenance this summer either (within the Park boundary); crews are still playing catchup from last winter and focus will be on the more "major" trails.

The washout in the Devil's Washbowl area I think occurred in 2019; it was touched up either that summer or the summer of 2020 and made passable by stock standards. In the summer of 2023, the Kings Canyon trail crew hiked through that entire drainage and out to Roads End in Cedar Grove; it was a pass through, and they did not perform maintenance. They reported slide activity along the Middle Fork between Palisade Creek and Cartridge Creek; indicating it was not stock passable but easily passable by people with some potential for minimal scrambling in a few places.

The Middle Fork ford at Simpson Meadow seems to change every year as new deposits form and then shift. No intel on what it looks like now; what I remember from crossing it the last time years ago was finding a way to zig zag combined with logs where possible between gravel bars. That was back in 2000; I crossed it in the 2nd week of July. I believe that the previous winter was considered an "average" one.

[lizgreer]

Wow, thank you @KT5519 KT5519 ! So much helpful info. I'm actually surprised and pleased to hear that there was trail maintenance to Tehipite Valley in 2021 - I thought maybe it had been a lot longer than that.

I'm a little worried about crossing MF Kings at Simpson Meadow but if it's too sketchy I'll skip the out and back to Tehipite and live to fight another day. Sounds like Cartridge --> Palisade is passable (at least LAST season).

Re the Palisade Creek crossing: When you said that I looked on the MapBuilder Topo layer in CalTopo and see that alternate Deer Meadow route. Phew! Great to know that's an option.

Also thanks for the update on the road. I really am assuming that the road will be open. I'm an optimist. :-)

And thanks also @wanderingdaisy for your input and the photos. I thought I had scoured for Tehipite past TRs but will look again as you suggest.