We stopped for a McGee Creek day hike on our way from the Bay Area to Onion Valley. I really had a difficult time classifying this as a legitimate day hike due to the limited elevation gain and mileage, but my hiking buddies seemed to disagree. Anyway, we hiked about 7.5 miles RT and gained about 1800 ft. We turned around at the creek's second log crossing. This is a beautiful area with many imposing peaks in the distance and many wildflowers along the trail.
We spent the night at the Onion Valley CG. This is a really nice CG with small but quaint campsites with fire pits. Loaded up on tri tip for dinner and enjoyed the night skies.
Day 1: Onion Valley CG to Charlotte Lake. 11 miles and 3000 ft elevation gain.
We passed several beautiful lakes and wild flowers along the trail to Kearsarge Pass.
The last slog up the pass was tough, but partly cloudy skies helped keep the heat down. The view from the pass towards Kings Canyon was awesome.
The peaks beyond the Kearsarge Pinnacles were inspiring.
We kept pushing, which means, taking a lot of breaks for water and dunking shirts and hats in the streams to keep cool, towards Charlotte Lake.
We spent the afternoon at the lake relaxing.
Caught a few fish, had dinner, enjoyed Eveready’s nightly reading of John Muir short stories, gazed at the night skies and tried to sleep.
Day 2: Charlotte Lake to Rae Lakes. 7 miles and 2000 ft elevation gain.
Got on the trail early to beat the heat, but we were lucky again to have partly cloudy skies the entire day. The anticipation builds on the way to Glen Pass because you don’t get a glimpse of the pass until the last mile. Charlotte Dome is seen along the way.
Finally you turn a corner at a lower lake and enter what seems like an amphitheater and then finally the pass is within your sites.
Slow and steady, with short breaks and before you know it you have made it to the top of Glen Pass.
The view to the North is awesome with the Sixty Lakes basin to the left and Rae Lakes straight ahead.
After a short rest, we descended down Glen Pass, which is steep at times, but the anticipation of Rae Lakes keeps your feet moving.
First view of the Painted Lady
Log crossing between upper and middle lakes
We finally made it the North end of the middle lake and set up camp. Again, our afternoon consisted of swimming, relaxing and soaking up the afternoon sun.
We found rocks out in the middle of the lake that you can actually stand on.
The evening consisted of fishing, dinner, our nightly reading and the night skies.
Link to night sky time lapse on Youtube
https://youtu.be/Y8l36ospwaE
