Granite Pass/ Tehipite Valley Side trip / Palisade Lakes input sought

[KT5519]

Good morning lizgreer; I do have some trail updates for you.

The trail between Simpson Meadow and Tehipite Valley has not had maintenance performed on it since 2021, so expect it to be overgrown. No flyovers were done of that area after last year's heavy precipitation events, so status of any slides or other trail damage is not known. There are currently no plans to visit and perform maintenance this summer either (within the Park boundary); crews are still playing catchup from last winter and focus will be on the more "major" trails.

The washout in the Devil's Washbowl area I think occurred in 2019; it was touched up either that summer or the summer of 2020 and made passable by stock standards. In the summer of 2023, the Kings Canyon trail crew hiked through that entire drainage and out to Roads End in Cedar Grove; it was a pass through, and they did not perform maintenance. They reported slide activity along the Middle Fork between Palisade Creek and Cartridge Creek; indicating it was not stock passable but easily passable by people with some potential for minimal scrambling in a few places.

The Middle Fork ford at Simpson Meadow seems to change every year as new deposits form and then shift. No intel on what it looks like now; what I remember from crossing it the last time years ago was finding a way to zig zag combined with logs where possible between gravel bars. That was back in 2000; I crossed it in the 2nd week of July. I believe that the previous winter was considered an "average" one.

[lizgreer]

Wow, thank you @KT5519 KT5519 ! So much helpful info. I'm actually surprised and pleased to hear that there was trail maintenance to Tehipite Valley in 2021 - I thought maybe it had been a lot longer than that.

I'm a little worried about crossing MF Kings at Simpson Meadow but if it's too sketchy I'll skip the out and back to Tehipite and live to fight another day. Sounds like Cartridge --> Palisade is passable (at least LAST season).

Re the Palisade Creek crossing: When you said that I looked on the MapBuilder Topo layer in CalTopo and see that alternate Deer Meadow route. Phew! Great to know that's an option.

Also thanks for the update on the road. I really am assuming that the road will be open. I'm an optimist. :-)

And thanks also @wanderingdaisy for your input and the photos. I thought I had scoured for Tehipite past TRs but will look again as you suggest.

[kenlaru]

We just finished a trip down the Middle fork of the Kings from Bishop Pass/Le Conte Canyon down to Tehipite Valley and out via Rancheria Trailhead above Wishon Reservoir. Here's my two cents about the trip. This trip included probably the hardest 3 consecutive days of hiking I've ever had. The trail over Bishop Pass to Le Conte was easy as expected. Once we turned off Palisade creek (easy to cross in mid August) the real trip began. To be honest the section from there to Simpson Meadow wasn't too bad, there were quite a few down trees but nothing difficult, the washout was easy to negotiate as long as you're not on a horse. We camped at the Park Service KNAACK Boxes which are located in Simpson Meadow. Look for a duck and a use trail to the right from the main trail and it will take you right to them. The river there is gravel and pretty dispersed so easy to cross. After the crossing is where the "fun" begins. Don't be lulled by the first couple miles, there are lots of trees down but they're easy to cross and the trail is easy to follow. The rest of the trail has all the variety you could ever want, trees, logs, bushes, rattlesnakes, often all at the same time. There are many down trees that fell like pixie sticks requiring long bushwhack go arounds and then trying to refind the trail. I guess it's appropriate we did this during the Olympics because it certainly required a lot of gymnastics to get thru. There is nothing too technical, it's just exhausting. It took us about 11 hours to go the 11 miles so one mile an hour average.

Once we got to Tehipite Valley it was as spectacular as ever (this was my fourth time there). It's your own personal Yosemite, I've yet to see anyone else there. The fishing was awesome, I had my best luck drifting bead head nymphs, but to be honest we spent most of our layover day just lazing around resting. Our next project was climbing out of the valley on the trail to Crown Valley. Our first obstacle was about 100 yards of blackberries, tasty but oh so painful, had I known about these I would have brought some pruners. Once passed these, the trails heads up and up and up. Still lots of bushes (including poison oak) and downed trees and logs but fairly easy to get over or around or thru. You can monitor your progress by comparing your elevation to that of Tehipite Dome, once you start seeing the top you know you're getting there. Don't be fooled, once you top off on the rim, you still have three miles of trail with many many, many logs and bushes to negotiate. Again not technical but exhausting. This trail evidently gets more use than Simpson to Tehipite so at least there are go-around trails but still oh so slow. We camped on Rodger's Creek and came out the Crown Valley trail to Rancheria trailhead which was blissfully cleared only weeks ago.

It is so unfortunate that so many trails like these are not being maintained, when I first hiked these trails 20 years ago it was so much better and easier. Unless there is some serious maintenance done on these trails I think this was my last visit to Tehipite.