GENERAL OVERVIEW: High route between the Basin due south of Izaak Walton Peak and the basin with Mott-Bighorn-Rosy Finch Lakes
CLASS/DIFFICULTY: Class 2
LOCATION: John Muir Wilderness HST Map
ELEVATION: 10, 960
USGS TOPO MAP (7.5'): Graveyard Peak
HST Map:HST Map
This route represents a way out of the same basin below Izaak Walton peak that is accessed in the West by the Warrior Ridge off trail pass. If one wants to continue in an easterly direction, there is a long, gradually sloping ridge at the eastern border of this basin (see photo #1 taken just below Warrior ridge). Dropping over this ridge will lead to Mott Lake and from there you can climb up to Bighorn and/or Rosy Finch Lakes. The exact route you take to go over this ridge does not matter too much, because the Mott side is pretty much the same: lots of vegetation with occasional rock outcroppings that need to be avoided. The East side is moderately steep, but not dangerously so as seen in the excerpt I cropped from the topo map and in the last photo looking back at the ridge across Mott Lake.
- Map of the pass.
- Distant view of Walton-Mott ridge
- Another view of Walton-Mott ridge
- View toward Mott Lake during descent from Walton-Mott ridge
- Another view toward Mott Lake during descent
- Shot across Mott Lake toward Walton-Mott ridge