High Sierra Topix

I agree with the "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" statement, even so there
are certain lakes that shine even with mediocre, less than ideal light.
For example an ordinary sunrise or sunset at 1000 Is Lake, which was one of your
picks as would be mine, will out shine most other lakes with the same quality light
because of Banner Peak and it's beautiful mirror reflection in the lake, and the same
goes for Bench Lake for the same reasons.
By the way how is the fishing in Bench Lake?

maverick wrote:I knew you were going to write that SSSdave, when/if you posted, hehe.
Do you not agree that 99% of people do not spend hours/days scouting out a perfect
spot at a lake because they do not care to invest that much time into it, so for someone to
get the exact same shot is unlikely, not to mention for the other 1% the variables like
the weather, time of day, season, quality of light, experience, and equipment make
it highly unlikely also?

Indeed I smile at the thought many of the most beautiful Sierra lakes and peaks were never given names and occasionally will amuse the rest of the board's members with mystery locales. Of course inexperienced backcountry visitors will tend to dismiss such no name features as likely unworthy so they remain unexpected prizes for those willing to gamble making efforts to explore beyond. Same thing goes for fishing in lakes as giantbrookie obviously found out when he was a young man in the mountains and apparently set out with excitement to visit a great many.

As for the 99% of people, indeed you are correct, most backcountry visitors are not serious photographers so don't spend any time scouting lakes nor even bother to take pictures when light is good. In fact they hardly understand what photographers mean when they speak of "good light". So most just catch shots incidently. And they are unlikely to do any more homework before a trip than to catch others comments about how so and so lake is scenic.

If one were to poll more serious photographers however, one would find many more do in fact make some effort to discover where and when to take images at backcountry places they visit. If they are going to make a strenuous effort reaching places they want such to pay off. The usual method is by other's comments, guidebooks, web resources, and seeing images others have taken. For armchair photographers today, there is an enormous resource of web Sierra images at summitpost.com or google images, and various known serious photographer websites. However such web resources barely scratch the surface of scenic Sierra lakes so personal effort will reward those willing to exploring mysteries themselves for generations.

maverick wrote:and the same
goes for Bench Lake for the same reasons.
By the way how is the fishing in Bench Lake?

Oh yes, I should have put Bench Lake on there. The view of Arrow Peak over that lake never gets old (by the way, the view of the lake from Arrow Peak is pretty amazing, too). The fishing is good. The rainbows and browns have reproduced a bit too well, so Bench isn't in the top lunker lake level (ie there is a high rate of succes here), but it isn't bad. The fishing is fast and furious and the fish my wife and I caught on last visit ran to 13.5" (with the browns tending to be the bigger fish). I have to believe that with the abundant shallow areas if the lake (there are good drop offs too, though) that there is good feed in this lake and a few residents almost certainly get bigger. It is a very nice place to hang out, that is for sure, with many comfy campsites available along a long stretch of lake perimeter.

Just to add to the discussion a tad more…
Many here, perhaps (due to not having as much available free Sierra time) are not as fortunate as others, having only “visited” some of these same named lakes but once. Others here have spent multiple days, (or have had multiple trips) to the same lakes, experiencing a wide variety of climatic conditions that can be found there.

Being at any one of these named lakes (or others not yet named), being privileged to experience the puffy, wispy, hanging clouds that appear suddenly after a summer shower, or having the sunset colors turn into that magic magenta shade, or waking early to find no wind and thus a mirror surface reflecting the Sierra majestic – golds, pinks, and purples…or seeing first-hand the thousands of temporary waterfalls that spring up briefly after a summer squall, only to soon wither away again within a few scant hours. All these contribute to the overall beauty experienced, and thus ultimately remembered.

Is it the chance atmospheric serendipity that creates the beauty or is it the lake itself? (Or both?) How would you know, if you were only there the one time?

Lakes like 1000 Is, and Bench Lake the atmospheric serendipity adds to the beauty, and in
the case of other lakes it makes the lake, this is what differentiates between the two
IMO.

Whichever one I am paddling on!

Not the Sierra, but my local Walker Lake, officially named Mountain Meadows Reservoir, but no one calls it that. Great abundance and variety of wildlife, and we are usually the only ones on the lake.

The bizzare scenery of Butte Lake, Lassen Volcanic, is always enjoyable. Again, we are often the only paddlers on the lake. Saturday the lake was glassy all day, not a single other craft, and the only other people we saw were a couple of hikers on the trail along the lake.

Heading further north into Oregon, the water trail at Klamath Lake through the NWR.

maverick wrote:Name 4 lakes in SEKI, 2 in Yosemite, and 4 in section between SEKI and
Yosemite based purely on beauty, and nothing else.

Without looking at any responses...

SeKi: lake northeast of Mungoat Pass in Kid Lakes Basin; westernmost Swamp Lake; Lake 10,554 below Emerald Peak; Lake 10,232 at the head of Goddard Creek. Bonus lake: the lowest Kid Lake.

Yosemite: Obelisk and Red Devil. Bonus lake: Edyth.

Between: Hortense; Peter Pande; Lake 10,200 southeast of Ward Mountain; Disappointment. Bonus lake: Cathedral.

My list of favorites


Marie Lakes
Grassy Lake
Lake of the Lone Indian
Tulainyo Lake

TehipiteTom wrote:SeKi: lake northeast of Mungoat Pass in Kid Lakes Basin; westernmost Swamp Lake; Lake 10,554 below Emerald Peak; Lake 10,232 at the head of Goddard Creek. Bonus lake: the lowest Kid Lake. Yosemite: Obelisk and Red Devil. Bonus lake: Edyth. Between: Hortense; Peter Pande; Lake 10,200 southeast of Ward Mountain; Disappointment. Bonus lake: Cathedral.

Wow, those are some nice ones. I've never been to 10554 but I have long thought it to be a pretty exotic place based on the topo

giantbrookie wrote:

TehipiteTom wrote:SeKi: lake northeast of Mungoat Pass in Kid Lakes Basin; westernmost Swamp Lake; Lake 10,554 below Emerald Peak; Lake 10,232 at the head of Goddard Creek. Bonus lake: the lowest Kid Lake. Yosemite: Obelisk and Red Devil. Bonus lake: Edyth. Between: Hortense; Peter Pande; Lake 10,200 southeast of Ward Mountain; Disappointment. Bonus lake: Cathedral.

Wow, those are some nice ones. I've never been to 10554 but I have long thought it to be a pretty exotic place based on the topo

It's off the beaten track, all right, but it's surprisingly...well, not easy, exactly, but not that difficult to get to. There's a nice route from McGee Canyon that follows the bench lake-to-lake, and a workable route down the wall to Evolution Meadow.