High Sierra Topix

I’ll try to make this a short one (and probably fail at that), but here it goes.

I took my sister along this trip; I had wanted to do something easier than the last trip I took her on. I don’t think I met my goal on this; day 1 was about 8 miles and +2160’ / -920’ gain/loss. Anyway, on to the report.

We drove to Grant Grove the day before our start. After doing the usual tourist things, we picked up our permit and checked into our tent cabin - not far from the John Muir Lodge. I thought it was pretty comfortable and would stay in one of these again. Also, the neighborhood was nice:

the view near our cabin rental in Grant Grove

The next morning, we drove to Rowell Meadow trailhead; the drive was pretty interesting- especially the last couple of miles of bumpy one-lane dirt road. Starting the hike, we had a good climb right out of the gate, and felt like we’d earned a nice lunch break when we got to Rowell Meadow.

Rowell Meadow

Many wildflowers (Lupine, Paintbrush, etc) were either past their bloom or just not abundant. But of those that were in bloom, the dominant species was some type of Yarrow. These blooms were a favored food source for countless thousands of butterflies, mostly all the same type. I’m no entomologist, so feel free to weigh in on just what these are in my photo (yes, I know, the plant in the photo is a variety of Monardella):

two of the local meadow residents

After leaving the meadow, we climbed through forest for a while, topped out (at the boundary sign entering Kings Canyon NP), then descended again, passing through lots of dead/down trees and an old burn area:

passing through an old burn area

Not long into this, we saw the sign for Seville Lake. Never having been there (and fearing the current landscape might extend to that lake), I rejected my earlier plan to have an easier Day 1 by ending our day there. So, we trudged on until we got to Lost Lake. We did see some nice stuff along the way:

nice Red Fir specimen

I’ll save the Lost Lake photos until the end.

Day 2, we had a leisurely breakfast and filtered some water, then packed up some snacks and headed to Ranger Lake. Sorry if you’ve seen the “Ranger and Mt Silliman” shot a zillion times, but I threw in a “dead tree in lake” shot because something about it appealed to me:

Ranger Lake and Mt Silliman

Ranger Lake

We hung around quite a while and enjoyed the calm; nobody else appeared to be there. I watched a bit for wildlife and saw a nice-looking hawk high above me (sorry, no photo). At home, I see lots of Red-tails and Kestrels, but nothing like this. I had to look up what I saw and decided on an ID of Sharp-shinned Hawk (over Cooper’s Hawk), based on its wing and tail shapes.

We returned to our camp at Lost Lake; my sister read her book and I explored a bit more around the lake:

Peak 9859’ / 3005m looms over Lost Lake

heading toward the inlet end of Lost Lake

looking back across the lake toward our camp

Day 3: we got up early, wanting time to deal with my sister’s car (which had developed an ominous noise after the dirt road ugliness) upon getting back to the trailhead. Before we started packing up, I went to top off our water supply and found the lake surface to be utterly still:

morning calm at Lost Lake (Twin Peaks in background)

another early-morning reflection

Anyway, we made it back out with appreciably less effort than our trip in, found the car to be in decent-enough shape, and made it back to Grant Grove with time to spare for cheeseburgers and exchange of a few photos before we parted ways and each headed home.

Very nice! We like that area a lot. Did your sister like it enough to sign up for the next one?

Thanks for the report! Your great photos are a reminder of how pretty this area is.

balzaccom wrote: ↑Fri Jul 30, 2021 6:52 am Very nice! We like that area a lot. Did your sister like it enough to sign up for the next one?

Thanks Paul - yes, I think she’ll go on another one, but I think I owe her a more relaxed trip; maybe something out of Wrights Lake in the Deso. Wilderness ? Or I’ll show her your website and let her pick

And thank you @windknot - and yes, this area was worth a return trip (I had missed L. Lake when I passed through in 2019).

Nice trip, report, and photos of a very scenic area. Thanks for posting.

Here is another testament to the nice country north of Lodgepole TH in Sequoia NP. After being amazed by frozenintime's recent post, I looked around for more, and found this great TR, which I, and a lot of others it seems, had missed. So, a belated thanks to grampy for this nice write up, and the fine photos.

I guess this area has been out of range for us due to the NP dog restrictions; but now I am wondering if it isn't worth a ski trip, or no dog trip after all. Grampy, do you know of the fishing potential in those nice lakes around Silliman? And Silliman looks like it would be a fun scramble. How close can one get to Lodgepole right now?

Ah, yes - that was a fun trip. It even sounds like it would be fun in the snow. My uneducated guess is that the descent on the “north” (actually east) side of Silliman Pass would be the sketchiest part, but perhaps deeper snow might actually make it easier? The only overnight x/c snow travel I’ve done was by snowshoeing (30 years ago), but I certainly enjoy reading about your winter trips.

As for winter access, there is this:
https://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/conditions.htm
… as Lodgepole is just south of the Wuksachi, that would make it reachable (as of today) from the south (hwy 198) entrance. Sorry I can’t answer the fishing question.

Also note that for overnight trips, Wilderness Permits (self-issue right now) are available at the Giant Forest Museum or the Foothills Visitor Center; the ranger office /visitor center at Lodgepole is still closed.