It is hard to leave the Sierra after a short backpacking trip, so my friend and I decided to take our ultra lightened packs (~16 lbs.) up Sonora Peak for one more night. The climb up 11459' Sonora Peak from the eponymous pass is almost exactly 2000 feet. There is still snowy ground for at least half of the route up. One can climb this easy mountain any number of ways from the pass, and we chose a very scenic route that took us past deep caves and even through a tunnel in the ridge on our way up. Steep snow slopes at one point made us wish we would have packed at least one ice axe, and we had to use care in our boot work to keep it safe. On the way back from the summit we found a higher path around that steep snow area, which made the whole descent pretty easy.
The weather held for us, and the views from the top were very fine. We ran into Chipmunks, and two Marmots, and one amazing Snowshoe Hare, who ran down past us. For birdlife the highlights were the Yellow-rumped Warblers, Mountain Bluebirds, a Redtail Hawk, and then the two giant Golden Eagles, who both soared ever so slowly, and then twice chose to tuck their wings tight to their bodies, and plummet down together at tremendous speed!
We are very glad we decided to stay in the Sierra awhile longer. Frank and I have learned to anticipate the feeling of loss upon returning from our Sierra trips, and we both easily agreed to reload our packs, and head back into the sky.
After the snowfields on the pass, we found ourselves in a lush Sagebrush community, with quite a few flowers bursting from the still wet soil. As Frank said, "These little flowers don't waste any time, do they."
The Pasque flowers were up again!
And the Phlox...
And these unknown flowers, which will soon be everywhere.
The clouds to the east were spectacular--they seemed to be exploding open!
We hiked right under these volcanic pinnacles and found this great tunnel...
Properly trained, a man can be dog’s best friend.
