Pine Creek TH -> Pine lake
Pine Lake to Honeymoon Lake
Day Hikes from Honeymoon Lake to Granite Park and Pine Creek Pass
Hike out from Honeymoon lake
Total Mileage: 30
Total altitude gain: 7,200'
Day 1:
Our party consisted of me, my Jasmine Rose and my daughter, Meital. We got a very late start following our long drive. Since it was very cloudy and cool, I was able to enjoy the trail and the scenery around us despite the hard slog. We were both very excited to see the first of many waterfalls from the trail. We finally made camp quite late. The best part about Pine Lake camping was the marvelous frog serenade all night long! They were awesome!!!
From our camp at Pine lake, we could see the wonderful, huge striped mountain. Throughout our trip, we would get incredible views of it from all sides and angles. Here, on the left, it looks like it has a bear paw on top of it!
- Bear paw on the left of the magnificent striped mountain.
We began our day with lots of enthusiasm and excitement. I really enjoyed the lovely walk through the woods to Honeymoon Lake. On the way, we met a day hiker who told us that once you get to Granite park, you are postholing to your hips.
- Jasmine Rose and I passing Upper Pine Lake
- The wonderful view from our camp at honeymoon Lake
Day 3:
We awoke to drizzle and grey skies. Not again!!! At least I had slept enough and felt my old energy. Off we went to day hike to Granite Park.
Here is where I have to confess that I made the stupidest navigation error that EVERYONE knows never to do. I followed the boot tracks and advice of the hikers from the day before...right up a snowfield that was suspended in air (because of the melting from below) above loose boulders! I had looked closely at the map (So I thought!!!) and knew that we had to gain a few hundred feet of altitude before we could cross on top of the waterfall. The waterfall in sight, the hikers pointed the way the day before, up we went.
It was so slow that it took about 2 hours to just go up a few hundred feet in altitude. Further, when the sun came out and not knowing what was below us, postholing seemed far too dangerous. Indeed, both my Jasmine Rose and I, on two different occasions, sank to our hips with just an abyss below! Luckily, we were able to find purchase on the snow around us and crawl out. Another safety point, IF I had had crampons on, that incident would have resulted in pretty bad lacerations. Meital had her own fare share of postholing, however, she was "lucky" in that she had boulders below her and just got bruised and scraped. We found a dry place for lunch with a great view of Honeymoon and had a long lazy lunch. We figured we had to abort the idea of going to Granite Park, so we had all day. SIGH! Would we ever go anywhere on this trip? At least the sun had come out. The birds were also celebrating and singing lovely songs to us!
- Meital and Jasmine Rose at our lovely lunch spot
After lunch, I wanted to explore so off we went, on dry granite slabs. What did I see...A TRAIL! ...BELOW us? I grabbed the map. OH- Did I ever feel stupid! The trail hugs the shoreline until it goes completely around the southern tip of Honeymoon Lake! AGGG How did I follow boot tracks! Lickity Split we made a bee line for the trail. Renewed by excitement, the bird song and the sun, off to Granite Park we went!!
Every step of the way was delightful on dry, easy to follow trail!
- Lovely Cascade on the way to Granite Park.
- Me and jasmine Rose on our way to Granite Park
- More mini Falls
- I am pointing out Feather and the other peaks.
- We had wondered about this flat plateau from below. It was quite something.
- Another of Feather and Royce
- Honeymoon Lake Reflections
Since I have run out of space, more pictures will be in the first comment below. Now for the last full day of our trip...
The next morning, we were off to day hike Pine Creek Pass. The way was beautiful, the forest SO FRAGRANT and the birds singing it up so I will let the pictures speak for themselves. The mosquitos decided to come out and when we were in the shade of the forest, they were pretty active.
On our last day, the mosquitos were in camp! That was the first time at Honeymoon that we had had biting mosquitos. On our way down, it was quite hot and we were very glad to finally get to the shade of the forest.
On the drive home, Meital and I agreed that the shock of reality, when you have tons of work to make up and a jam packed calendar, is almost like whiplash!
However, in two days, she would be graduating and getting her MS in Aerospace engineering from CalTech so we would be partying it up again soon. (They only get a few days off before the professors crack the whip again and they go back to work towards the PhD.)
