TR: Road's End to Dusy Basin, back down via Middle Fork
Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 2:23 pm
Drove up to Roads end last Friday morning and started hiking around 10:00. Following the sierra high route to Dusy Basin and then heading back down along the middle fork of the Kings. Made it to Grouse Lake which I loved - pretty, fun fishing, and all by myself. Little sleep + driving + a lot of uphill made for a long day. It was a bit windy and cloudy.
Looking back over Grouse Lake in the morning: I went real slowly the second day, stopping to fish at some places and eventually stopping around 4:00 at Horseshoe Lakes. Around the time I realized (I think) there were no fish in the lake I also realized someone else was camped there, but I was too lazy to pack up and head on. Pretty spot, though: Third day I tried to make up for the short previous day. Great view from Windy Ridge: I thought the view from Red Pass was incredible. None of my pictures really came close to capturing it:(
Marion Lake was a beautiful color: Headed up towards frozen lake pass (I think this is looking up towards the pass). Coming at the end of the day that pass was pretty tedious and tiring. I was pretty exhausted by the time I got to down; I camped at the first reasonable spot I found down in upper basin. Fourth day started out on the John Muir Trail. I ran into a ton of people who were coming up Mather Pass. Hiking along Palisades Lakes I was looking up towards Cirque Pass thinking, "I'm going up there?". Looking back towards Palisades: From Potluck Pass: Pretty "snaking" lake, as promised in the book: Random pic: After a long day the end was in sight. As usual though, it took me a longer than I expected to make it all the way down and find a campsite. Fifth day: I'm expecting a quick jaunt back to the start on trails. Not really with any basis, I just assumed it would be real quick, basically a trail in forest following the river south. Not exactly. The trail headed lost a ton of elevation, kind of a lot of steps that I don't really love. Pretty views but it took a while to get to the King's River. The beginning of that trail was kind of what I expected; pretty mellow with some nice campsites, just kind of following the river. Attachment limit? Continued...
Looking back over Grouse Lake in the morning: I went real slowly the second day, stopping to fish at some places and eventually stopping around 4:00 at Horseshoe Lakes. Around the time I realized (I think) there were no fish in the lake I also realized someone else was camped there, but I was too lazy to pack up and head on. Pretty spot, though: Third day I tried to make up for the short previous day. Great view from Windy Ridge: I thought the view from Red Pass was incredible. None of my pictures really came close to capturing it:(
Marion Lake was a beautiful color: Headed up towards frozen lake pass (I think this is looking up towards the pass). Coming at the end of the day that pass was pretty tedious and tiring. I was pretty exhausted by the time I got to down; I camped at the first reasonable spot I found down in upper basin. Fourth day started out on the John Muir Trail. I ran into a ton of people who were coming up Mather Pass. Hiking along Palisades Lakes I was looking up towards Cirque Pass thinking, "I'm going up there?". Looking back towards Palisades: From Potluck Pass: Pretty "snaking" lake, as promised in the book: Random pic: After a long day the end was in sight. As usual though, it took me a longer than I expected to make it all the way down and find a campsite. Fifth day: I'm expecting a quick jaunt back to the start on trails. Not really with any basis, I just assumed it would be real quick, basically a trail in forest following the river south. Not exactly. The trail headed lost a ton of elevation, kind of a lot of steps that I don't really love. Pretty views but it took a while to get to the King's River. The beginning of that trail was kind of what I expected; pretty mellow with some nice campsites, just kind of following the river. Attachment limit? Continued...