Bench Canyon Redux

[dbargaehr1]

In 2023 I visited Bench Canyon in late July. It was an adventure, thanks to the record snow year. See details here:

viewtopic.php?t=23433&hilit=bench+canyon

We're working on a reprise in 2025, but we don't want to take the same route.

Here's our original route from last year, starting from Isberg through Cora. https://caltopo.com/m/T8471

This year, we're considering two options -

1) coming in from the east over the HSR: starting from Silver Lake on the June Lake Loop, up through Thousand Island Lake, and over the Ritter Range.

2) San Joaquin NF XC: starting from the Mammoth TH and taking a variety of routes and then eventually going XC on the North Fork up to Bench.

The questions:

1) Has anyone followed the North Fork cross-country up to Bench? Any particular nasty spots to navigate? I previewed it on Google Earth and CalTopo slope angle shading and there's a few tough-looking sections.

2) We're trying to figure out a return path that's also novel. We came down Long Creek Trail last time, which was fun, but we'd rather take a different approach. Any clever return path ideas to the trailhead? We'd need to loop it as we'd probably be flying into Fresno and renting a car.

[commonloon]

Last year I did June Lakes/Silver Lake, aka Rush Creek TH to 1000 Island then Sierra High Route to Bench Canyon, Blue Lake Pass then trails to Vogel Sang (Awesome summit views) then back via Donohue, Waugh "Lake." Navigation is fairly straightforward when traveling West, after N Glacier Pass, stay right (North) and you can avoid steeper terrain, to Twin Island lakes, then contour 10,000-10,200 ft.

Only real difficulty was, as I came back thru Yose, where I choose to cross Lyell Creek -- suggest allotting some extra time if you need to cross it in July to go upstream and find a good non-sketchy crossing (of course depends on snow year).

Hope that helps.

[dbargaehr1]

Last year I did June Lakes/Silver Lake, aka Rush Creek TH to 1000 Island then Sierra High Route to Bench Canyon, Blue Lake Pass then trails to Vogel Sang (Awesome summit views) then back via Donohue, Waugh "Lake." Navigation is fairly straightforward when traveling West, after N Glacier Pass, stay right (North) and you can avoid steeper terrain, to Twin Island lakes, then contour 10,000-10,200 ft.

Only real difficulty was, as I came back thru Yose, where I choose to cross Lyell Creek -- suggest allotting some extra time if you need to cross it in July to go upstream and find a good non-sketchy crossing (of course depends on snow year).

Hope that helps.

thanks. We enjoy fishing quite a bit and it's a central part of these trips, so i'm looking at whether coming up the NF San Joaquin would be a good idea. I suspect that Hemlock Xing bridge is still out given how damaged it was when we were there in 2023.

[commonloon]

thanks. We enjoy fishing quite a bit and it's a central part of these trips, so i'm looking at whether coming up the NF San Joaquin would be a good idea. I suspect that Hemlock Xing bridge is still out given how damaged it was when we were there in 2023.

Awe. I've seen an apparent use trail near Twin Island Lakes pointing down the canyon. It looks like a trail on the USGS map. I haven't been down there. Loop back over Beck's Lake Pass, hit the Middle Fork on the way back to June Lakes? Or same loop reverse up the NF. I think that would avoid the bridge(?)/crossing. You could also start that loop from Devil's Postpile or Red Cones/Mammoth Pass.

[dbargaehr1]

Awe. I've seen an apparent use trail near Twin Island Lakes pointing down the canyon. It looks like a trail on the USGS map. I haven't been down there. Loop back over Beck's Lake Pass, hit the Middle Fork on the way back to June Lakes? Or same loop reverse up the NF. I think that would avoid the bridge(?)/crossing. You could also start that loop from Devil's Postpile or Red Cones/Mammoth Pass.

The bridge crossing isn't super necessary, we don't mind fording and XC. From what I can tell, Sheep Crossing is still up. We went in 2023 (see my trip report link) during the insane water year that knocked the bridge out.

The use trail you're referring to is probably the one that comes up from Bench Canyon on the east side of the NF San Joaquin. The typical access from Isberg or Mammoth TH is to get over to the east side of the river (by Hemlock or Sheeps Xing), then ford the river back across and follow Blue Creek up to get into Bench. But it was an impossibility the year we did it, the runoff was unbelievable. Check my TR, we actually had to backtrack and XC down to the NF, then work our way up into bench from the "wrong" (read: hard) side of Blue Creek. it was an adventure.

Because we'll be renting a car coming back to the same TH is essential, as much as i like thru routes.

I didn't think about coming out of postpile, i'll take a look at the mileage. We tend to keep low miles (under 10 a day if we can help it) because we like to stop and fish as we go.

The climb out of June Lake loop is pretty brutal!

[Harlen]

Hey dbargaehr1,
You wrote:

...this year, we're considering two options -

1) coming in from the east over the HSR: starting from Silver Lake on the June Lake Loop, up through Thousand Island Lake, and over the Ritter Range.

2) San Joaquin NF XC: starting from the Mammoth TH and taking a variety of routes and then eventually going XC on the North Fork up to Bench.

The questions:

1) Has anyone followed the North Fork cross-country up to Bench? Any particular nasty spots to navigate? I previewed it on Google Earth and CalTopo slope angle shading and there's a few tough-looking sections.

2) We're trying to figure out a return path that's also novel. We came down Long Creek Trail last time, which was fun, but we'd rather take a different approach. Any clever return path ideas to the trailhead?

I've only come to Bench Canyon the same way Common Paul Loon went-- via the SHR. We are keen to start on the west, as you guys did last time, but return from the Yosemite side, via Isberg Pass. We thought to cross Blue Lake Pass, and take a day or two up in the Lyell Fork of the Merced, and then take a high route crosscountry stopping at Harriet Lake, which I think has good fishing, and then briefly drop down to the trail over Isberg.
Your option to come in from the east, over North Glacier Pass is really amazing for scenery, and there is good fishing for rainbows at the top of 1000 Island Lake. It would be very different from your 2023 route, and you could figure out a cool return circle, perhaps by crossing the SJ, and then hiking up off-trail past Iron Mtn-- is that "Iron Creek?" Then you would cross south of the Minarets, and hit Red's Meadow for burgers and fresh fruit.

You can't go wrong-- it's such brilliant country! Good luck, Harlens.

Climb a mile or so above Lake Catherine, or all the way up Davis Mountain, for this view. That is along the North Glacier route:

[Stanley Otter]

The questions:

1) Has anyone followed the North Fork cross-country up to Bench? Any particular nasty spots to navigate? I previewed it on Google Earth and CalTopo slope angle shading and there's a few tough-looking sections.

dbargaehr1,
Hello. Back in 2018 I hiked from the headwaters of the North Fork down to Dike Creek and then over McDonald Pass and Beck Lakes Pass. I did not encounter anything along the river beyond some Class 2 scrambling. The relevant post from a longer trip report is here: viewtopic.php?p=139124#p139124 I just went through the ol' photo archives to jog my memory and confirm my impressions -- awe inspiring scenery and nothing particularly nasty (recognizing, of course, that I was headed downhill). Hope that helps.
Dennis