Gardiner Basin has been on my todo list for quite a few years, and shtinkypuppie's recent trip report finally inspired me to attempt it. As additional impetus, my son and daughter had never seen Rae Lakes and were willing to join me in a rambling, partly cross-country loop on the way to see them. We're quite a bit slower hikers than s'puppie is and with a layover day our trip ended up taking us about twice as many days as his did.
Day 1 we drove up to Onion Valley and then hiked for a couple of hours up to Matlock Lake, breaking up the climb to the pass. Rain and possible thunderstorms were in the forecast so the plan was to get an early start each of the following days in order to try to make it into camp before the rain began. For the most part the plan worked well and luckily we never had to make or break camp in the rain.
- Dawn at Matlock Lake
The next day we finished up the climb to the pass and then down to Charlotte Lake, giving us an easy day to get acclimated. There were quite a few more parties camped at Charlotte Lake than the last time I was there, with the perhaps inevitable result:
- Lakeside visitor
As we were completing our loop a few days later, we noticed that the Charlotte Lake ranger had added "Bear Instructions" to many of the signposts in the general area. The instructions included the tip that if you wanted to scare away a bear, "run towards it as if you want to eat it".
The following day we headed up and over Gardiner Pass. We found the old trail fairly easy to follow as it headed west.
- Above Charlotte Creek
- Anyone know the name of this flower?
Just before turning right up to Gardiner Pass, we were passed by a couple of climbers. They had found the climbing on University Peak the previous day unsatisfactory, so they decided to day hike from their Matlock Lake camp over to Charlotte Dome, climb a few pitches, then hike all the way back to camp. We marveled at their stamina.
The trail petered out at this point but the climb through the forest up to the pass was open and gradual.
- Looking down into Gardiner Basin
Remembering the guidance from shtinkpuppie's report, we quickly found the easy way down using the trail switchbacks, which are still in great shape. We decided to camp at the small lake at 10600+ just below the pass. The views of Mount Gardiner from camp were nice.
- Mount Gardiner
- Evening light
The following day we headed down to Gardiner Creek. The trail came and went but the cross country travel was straightforward. Fortunately the trail was in good shape and easy to follow for the steep 200' drop that starts around 9400' (although the actual trail angles east rather than heading directly down as the map shows).
Once down to Gardiner Creek creek we gave up on looking for the trail altogether and just headed up the drainage, staying above the creek on the right until about 10040' and then crossing to the left. We decided to camp next at lake 10520+ (WL 3214). The lake was not too cold and the weather was cooperating so two of us decided to go for a swim.
- WL 3214
- Bee working overtime
