R01 TR: Southern Sierra High Route & Muro Blanco Loop (the NJTC Loop for lack of a better name) 8/26-8/31 2022
Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2022 11:21 am
Overview - I’ve been trying to hike this loop route (southern end of the Sierra High Route plus the Muro Blanco) for the past three years but due to fires and other hazards the group cancelled for the last two. This year seemed our best bet and my group was finally able to complete the hike. The four of us (Naveen, Todd, Jackson, and Colin) hiked this loop between 26-31 August 2022, spending 4 days off trail. The weather was outstanding (80s during the day and 40s at night) and it never rained. I wrote a long review of this trail as there were some dangerous sections that hikers need attention if anyone wants to hike this in the future.
Getting right to the point: this was an incredibly difficult hike. No single one-day was terribly difficult, although the Muro Blanco was very, very hard, but the continuous grind of each day being harder than the last definitely took its toll. We encountered “surprise” class 3 mountaineering sections, grades over 50% offtrail, and the Muro Blanco was worse than anything I expected. To the last point, the MB was all Talus fields or head high bushwacking (sometimes at the same time); at times, the brush was so dense that we got stuck and couldn’t even cut our way through. Due to our slow pace we were forced to spend an extra night in the canyon. We fell, jumped, and splashed our way down the MB and, while beautiful, the going was hard, slow, and dangerous. We were glad to have our SOS tool and anyone hiking this route at this pace must have one. Each consecutive day on this hike is harder than the last but more to all of this below…
Day 1 - Copper Creek Trail to Grouse Lake. This trail is a slog with approximately 5,000 elevation gain. Nothing truly remarkable except the thigh burn. The views are exceptional, especially at tent meadows as you look down on the Sphynx, but overall, just a difficult push to gain elevation over a couple of hours. The Grouse Lake trail breaks away near the top and it isn’t marked but it becomes clear if you’re paying attention. Grouse Lake itself is also exceptional: the lake reflecting Goat Mountain the next morning made the entire Copper Creek trail worth it. Plus, Grouse Lake was warm and swimming at dusk proved a great way to end the first day.
Day 2 – Grouse Lake to Horseshoe Lakes: We started early and headed straight towards Grouse Lake Pass, visible from our campsite at Grouse Lake. Make sure you go around to the right side of the lake to get to the pass as the left side of the lake isn’t really hikeable unless you want to scale some large rocks. Hiking up to the pass is fairly easy albeit steep and provides a good view of the Lake at the top.
You have to be a little careful dropping down into the next valley and Granite Creek due to loose scree and steep rock faces but the valley is beautiful and a great place to stop for a snack. The next pass is Goat Crest Saddle to North, North-East and it’s an easy grade up to the top with some pretty views of Glacier Lakes. Getting down the North side is steep and slippery when hopping down the rocks. There isn’t a trail so choose your path wisely. We ate lunch at the first Glacier Lake thinking the hardest part of the day was over (we were wrong). We stayed to the right as we went down past the two Glacier Lakes – once you walk past the second lake on the left-hand side, you hit an incredibly steep cliff with large rocks jutting out that has to be a Class 3 mountaineering section. There were two choices: either stay to the right and lower ourselves down the cliffs and scoot down the less steep sections or stay to the left and scramble down the rock field near the stream. We opted to stay to the right and went down the various cliffs. Maybe going down the rock field to the left is the better path? We’ll never know… Eventually we made it down the cliff and into an incredible meadow/bog. We headed north and eventually hit an unmaintained trail that took us past State lakes and up to Horseshoe Lakes. The swimming wasn’t as good as Grouse Lake and whole lot colder. Note: we had a lot of bear encounters at night so make sure you don’t leave any candy or toothpaste in your pack.
Day 3 – Horseshoe Lakes to Marion Lake: We wanted to start the day early as we anticipated this to be our hardest day of the trip (wrong again, more later) as we were going over three passes. The mileage looks manageable at about 5 miles but the elevation gain and decline is brutal and, between the 50%+ grades and no trails, the going was slow. From Horseshoe lake, we kept to the higher topo lines on the map as we walked North East and then North towards Gray Pass. It was fairly steep but there is a flatter section about a third of the way up that turns out to be an easy walking path towards the pass. You can easily find it on the topo map and if you follow that contour it’ll take you right to where you want to go. Gray pass itself is fairly easy to locate as it’s the lowest section to the left of the mountain directly East of Horseshoe lake. You walk through some incredibly pretty meadows with dramatic views and steep drop offs. Overall, it’s an easy path.
Once you get to the pass, you can see down into the windy ridge valley (~10,400 ft) and back up to the other side of the mountain where you need to summit White and Red pass (~11,700 ft) less than a mile or two away. Needless to say, it’s a steep descent and ascent. The valley itself is incredibly isolated and beautiful. The south fork of Cartridge Creek runs through the Windy Ridge lakes and is surrounded by the Windy Ridge itself and Cirque Crest. Its pretty. Going down from Gray pass, we followed a creek bed but stayed to the right after making the mistake to go left and hitting a steep cliff. There’s something of a path…kind of… but you need to use your head when following the various animal trails. We got down to the lakes, refilled our water, had lunch, and after a quick rest filled with dread of having to walk up the next mountain, we started back up the other side.
The grade is really steep and we opted to follow another creek up to the meadow below White pass. There were two apparent paths, one to the right and one to left with a big craggy rock in the middle. We stayed to the right as it seemed less steep and we made it up in a few hours. At the top there is a really nice lake surrounded by boggy grass (watch out for holes in the grass when you walk). We took a quick breather and then summited White pass, which was only a few hundred feet to the top. The views were incredible of the canyon that Cartridge Creek runs down and the mountains surrounding it (Observation Peak, Mount Woodworth, etc). The white pass ridge is only about 20 feet in width and the drop on the north side is much steeper than we anticipated so we had walked along the ridge to the left and dropped down where it made sense (more ‘surprise’ class three mountaineering). It was slow going, kind of dangerous due to exhaustion and altitude, and when we finally dropped into the meadow between White and Red pass it was already around 4PM. The meadow between the passes is amazing and you head to the right towards Red Pass (you can’t miss it since…it’s red). You’re around 11,200 feet so everyone was quickly winded but we made it to the top of the pass around 5PM. We were worried about light as the drop down into Marion Lake is steep but we followed the “trail” and eventually made it to the lake around 6:30PM. Note: the final drop into Marion Lake is incredibly steep and dangerous. Make sure you take plenty of precaution when making the final descent (scoot on your butt and shoes, etc). Also, the correct chute to get to the lake is the farthest on the left side as you’re facing the lake. The other chutes are steeper or have a drop-off at the end into the lake and you’d have to retrace your steps (not fun). Make sure you take a photo next to the Marion La Conte sign on a rock that looks just like Marion peak coincidentally and then go for a swim. The water is “warm” and I spent about a half hour just swimming around. By far my favorite lake – Marion lake is amazing. We had a great night.
Day 4 – Marion Lake to the middle of the Muro Blanco: We knew today was going to be a long day as we were trying to hike about 13 miles offtrail so we got started around 6AM. We hiked up and out of Marion Lake towards Lake Basin. Lake Basin totally desolate, windy, cold and beautiful. As we entered, we passed Luke Lake on the left hand side and a slew of other lakes, cold and isolated. After about 1.5 miles we hit the base of Cartridge Pass, which was intimidating. On first glance there appeared to be no trail up the rock slide to the pass and it was probably the steepest grade we encountered. As you walk up to the rocks though the “trail” emerges, but you’ve got to be careful. It’s slippery and steep, and we all fell multiple times (another good reason to bring a rope). In spite of all that we were able to get to the top in less than 30 minutes. Another great pass with amazing views and probably tallest we crested at about 11,900 feet (maybe a little less depending on where you walk through) at around 10AM. We didn’t spend much time as we had a full day ahead of us and we started to walk down. There is an old, unmaintained trail (the old JMT) that leads you down past Rosemary and Maren lakes (they are kind of connected) and on to the main lake (Cartridge lake) which seems like a great place to swim and fish…or just take in the views of the canyon and Bench lake about a mile or two away. Next time I do this loop I’m going to try to camp here instead of Marion lake. Getting down to the Muro Blanco canyon floor is a steep and dusty trek but we made it by noon by following the old JMT Trail.
Not knowing what we were in for, we took a 45 minute lunch break and pumped some water. We thought we’d have an easy-ish time getting through the Muro Blanco with a few Talus-hopping-bushwhacking sections and be out by 7PM…and as we entered the MB canyon our predictions seemed to be accurate as we were walking between spread out trees with tall grass and a few branches on the ground. We (fools) thought it would remain like this through the duration. This was very much NOT the case. By 1PM we hit our first thicket of headhigh brush near the river with Talus fields climbing on either side and remained that way until we hit Upper Paradise Valley 8 miles later. The going was incredibly slow, sometimes as slow as 200 yards an hour, in the bush or dangerous rock hopping the Talus Fields. That was the choice the entire way down: go a little faster on the Talus fields but risk a fall, sprain, or worse as exhaustion sets in or you bushwhack your way through the headhigh brush. In the beginning we chose Talus hopping but stopped after a few hours because of the risk. Plus Todd was 74 during this trip so if it was risky for us in our 30s and 40s then it was incredibly risky for him. So we bushwhacked until the brush became so thick that we had to cross the river, then did more of the same on the other side until we had to cross again. Wash-rinse-repeat. Sometimes we had to Talus hop while bushwhacking, which we couldn’t avoid but spiked our anxiety (try hopping huge boulders with someone trying to trip you). I think we crossed the river 13 times that day and we only made it 3 miles until we were forced to stop at 7 due to lack of light. We eventually had to call it a day and camp half a mile East from the first major bend in the Muro Blanco canyon. Everyone was exhausted so we went straight to bed on a Talus field that had filled in with some dirt. We slept well, all things considered, but were dreading the next day since we were making such slow progress. We had seen huge bear paw tracks and other tracks the entire trip down the MB and scared a few bears out of the bush on our trek that afternoon. That night we dreamed of big, wild animals.
Side note: for anyone considering shooting the Muro Blanco, I recommend bringing water shoes and full-leg compression leggings. You’ll need both as long pants catch on the thick bush and trip you and it takes a long time to take off your shoes to cross the river. Walking in the river is ‘sometimes’ a good idea but its very slippery and adds risk for ankle sprains or falls. Especially here, you need an SOS beacon. We all fell multiple times, cut up our shins and hands, and it was pure luck we didn’t hurt ourselves to the point where we couldn’t walk out on our own. The Muro Blanco is incredibly difficult, demanding, and risky. On a year like ours, it will take you two days to get through it and you’ll be forced to go slow for safety alone. It isn’t a route to be taken lightly and preparation goes a long way.
Day 5 – Muro Blanco to Upper Paradise Valley: we left at 5:45AM that morning and pushed through the rest of the canyon until we hit Upper Paradise and the trail (civilization!). It took us a full 12 hours to get through all of it and it was just as difficult as the day before. The only difference is that the bush changes as you descend. At around 8,500 ft you have tall green bushy branches that eventually turn into a woody orange-ish type bush that explodes orange pollen all over you if you brush up against it. Then the bush turns into ferns; all of these were chest to head high or more.
Finally around 6PM we found the Woods Creek trail and Upper Paradise Valley. Naveen and Jackson opted to push and exit that night; myself and Todd opted to camp at Middle Paradise and walk out the next morning. So we parted ways and I slept like a log, except for the final bear encounter that evening.
Day 6: Upper Paradise to Road’s End: the next morning Todd and I got up early and walked the final 7 miles to Road’s End in about three hours, only stopping to take pictures at Mist Falls. The only thing we could think of is taking a shower and eating breakfast at the lodge. Of course the showers were closed for the season and the lodge didn’t serve breakfast.
**EDIT: thanks for all of the interest everyone! I didn't think this would get as much attention as it did. Photos are below in the responses section. I hope everyone enjoys!
Getting right to the point: this was an incredibly difficult hike. No single one-day was terribly difficult, although the Muro Blanco was very, very hard, but the continuous grind of each day being harder than the last definitely took its toll. We encountered “surprise” class 3 mountaineering sections, grades over 50% offtrail, and the Muro Blanco was worse than anything I expected. To the last point, the MB was all Talus fields or head high bushwacking (sometimes at the same time); at times, the brush was so dense that we got stuck and couldn’t even cut our way through. Due to our slow pace we were forced to spend an extra night in the canyon. We fell, jumped, and splashed our way down the MB and, while beautiful, the going was hard, slow, and dangerous. We were glad to have our SOS tool and anyone hiking this route at this pace must have one. Each consecutive day on this hike is harder than the last but more to all of this below…
Day 1 - Copper Creek Trail to Grouse Lake. This trail is a slog with approximately 5,000 elevation gain. Nothing truly remarkable except the thigh burn. The views are exceptional, especially at tent meadows as you look down on the Sphynx, but overall, just a difficult push to gain elevation over a couple of hours. The Grouse Lake trail breaks away near the top and it isn’t marked but it becomes clear if you’re paying attention. Grouse Lake itself is also exceptional: the lake reflecting Goat Mountain the next morning made the entire Copper Creek trail worth it. Plus, Grouse Lake was warm and swimming at dusk proved a great way to end the first day.
Day 2 – Grouse Lake to Horseshoe Lakes: We started early and headed straight towards Grouse Lake Pass, visible from our campsite at Grouse Lake. Make sure you go around to the right side of the lake to get to the pass as the left side of the lake isn’t really hikeable unless you want to scale some large rocks. Hiking up to the pass is fairly easy albeit steep and provides a good view of the Lake at the top.
You have to be a little careful dropping down into the next valley and Granite Creek due to loose scree and steep rock faces but the valley is beautiful and a great place to stop for a snack. The next pass is Goat Crest Saddle to North, North-East and it’s an easy grade up to the top with some pretty views of Glacier Lakes. Getting down the North side is steep and slippery when hopping down the rocks. There isn’t a trail so choose your path wisely. We ate lunch at the first Glacier Lake thinking the hardest part of the day was over (we were wrong). We stayed to the right as we went down past the two Glacier Lakes – once you walk past the second lake on the left-hand side, you hit an incredibly steep cliff with large rocks jutting out that has to be a Class 3 mountaineering section. There were two choices: either stay to the right and lower ourselves down the cliffs and scoot down the less steep sections or stay to the left and scramble down the rock field near the stream. We opted to stay to the right and went down the various cliffs. Maybe going down the rock field to the left is the better path? We’ll never know… Eventually we made it down the cliff and into an incredible meadow/bog. We headed north and eventually hit an unmaintained trail that took us past State lakes and up to Horseshoe Lakes. The swimming wasn’t as good as Grouse Lake and whole lot colder. Note: we had a lot of bear encounters at night so make sure you don’t leave any candy or toothpaste in your pack.
Day 3 – Horseshoe Lakes to Marion Lake: We wanted to start the day early as we anticipated this to be our hardest day of the trip (wrong again, more later) as we were going over three passes. The mileage looks manageable at about 5 miles but the elevation gain and decline is brutal and, between the 50%+ grades and no trails, the going was slow. From Horseshoe lake, we kept to the higher topo lines on the map as we walked North East and then North towards Gray Pass. It was fairly steep but there is a flatter section about a third of the way up that turns out to be an easy walking path towards the pass. You can easily find it on the topo map and if you follow that contour it’ll take you right to where you want to go. Gray pass itself is fairly easy to locate as it’s the lowest section to the left of the mountain directly East of Horseshoe lake. You walk through some incredibly pretty meadows with dramatic views and steep drop offs. Overall, it’s an easy path.
Once you get to the pass, you can see down into the windy ridge valley (~10,400 ft) and back up to the other side of the mountain where you need to summit White and Red pass (~11,700 ft) less than a mile or two away. Needless to say, it’s a steep descent and ascent. The valley itself is incredibly isolated and beautiful. The south fork of Cartridge Creek runs through the Windy Ridge lakes and is surrounded by the Windy Ridge itself and Cirque Crest. Its pretty. Going down from Gray pass, we followed a creek bed but stayed to the right after making the mistake to go left and hitting a steep cliff. There’s something of a path…kind of… but you need to use your head when following the various animal trails. We got down to the lakes, refilled our water, had lunch, and after a quick rest filled with dread of having to walk up the next mountain, we started back up the other side.
The grade is really steep and we opted to follow another creek up to the meadow below White pass. There were two apparent paths, one to the right and one to left with a big craggy rock in the middle. We stayed to the right as it seemed less steep and we made it up in a few hours. At the top there is a really nice lake surrounded by boggy grass (watch out for holes in the grass when you walk). We took a quick breather and then summited White pass, which was only a few hundred feet to the top. The views were incredible of the canyon that Cartridge Creek runs down and the mountains surrounding it (Observation Peak, Mount Woodworth, etc). The white pass ridge is only about 20 feet in width and the drop on the north side is much steeper than we anticipated so we had walked along the ridge to the left and dropped down where it made sense (more ‘surprise’ class three mountaineering). It was slow going, kind of dangerous due to exhaustion and altitude, and when we finally dropped into the meadow between White and Red pass it was already around 4PM. The meadow between the passes is amazing and you head to the right towards Red Pass (you can’t miss it since…it’s red). You’re around 11,200 feet so everyone was quickly winded but we made it to the top of the pass around 5PM. We were worried about light as the drop down into Marion Lake is steep but we followed the “trail” and eventually made it to the lake around 6:30PM. Note: the final drop into Marion Lake is incredibly steep and dangerous. Make sure you take plenty of precaution when making the final descent (scoot on your butt and shoes, etc). Also, the correct chute to get to the lake is the farthest on the left side as you’re facing the lake. The other chutes are steeper or have a drop-off at the end into the lake and you’d have to retrace your steps (not fun). Make sure you take a photo next to the Marion La Conte sign on a rock that looks just like Marion peak coincidentally and then go for a swim. The water is “warm” and I spent about a half hour just swimming around. By far my favorite lake – Marion lake is amazing. We had a great night.
Day 4 – Marion Lake to the middle of the Muro Blanco: We knew today was going to be a long day as we were trying to hike about 13 miles offtrail so we got started around 6AM. We hiked up and out of Marion Lake towards Lake Basin. Lake Basin totally desolate, windy, cold and beautiful. As we entered, we passed Luke Lake on the left hand side and a slew of other lakes, cold and isolated. After about 1.5 miles we hit the base of Cartridge Pass, which was intimidating. On first glance there appeared to be no trail up the rock slide to the pass and it was probably the steepest grade we encountered. As you walk up to the rocks though the “trail” emerges, but you’ve got to be careful. It’s slippery and steep, and we all fell multiple times (another good reason to bring a rope). In spite of all that we were able to get to the top in less than 30 minutes. Another great pass with amazing views and probably tallest we crested at about 11,900 feet (maybe a little less depending on where you walk through) at around 10AM. We didn’t spend much time as we had a full day ahead of us and we started to walk down. There is an old, unmaintained trail (the old JMT) that leads you down past Rosemary and Maren lakes (they are kind of connected) and on to the main lake (Cartridge lake) which seems like a great place to swim and fish…or just take in the views of the canyon and Bench lake about a mile or two away. Next time I do this loop I’m going to try to camp here instead of Marion lake. Getting down to the Muro Blanco canyon floor is a steep and dusty trek but we made it by noon by following the old JMT Trail.
Not knowing what we were in for, we took a 45 minute lunch break and pumped some water. We thought we’d have an easy-ish time getting through the Muro Blanco with a few Talus-hopping-bushwhacking sections and be out by 7PM…and as we entered the MB canyon our predictions seemed to be accurate as we were walking between spread out trees with tall grass and a few branches on the ground. We (fools) thought it would remain like this through the duration. This was very much NOT the case. By 1PM we hit our first thicket of headhigh brush near the river with Talus fields climbing on either side and remained that way until we hit Upper Paradise Valley 8 miles later. The going was incredibly slow, sometimes as slow as 200 yards an hour, in the bush or dangerous rock hopping the Talus Fields. That was the choice the entire way down: go a little faster on the Talus fields but risk a fall, sprain, or worse as exhaustion sets in or you bushwhack your way through the headhigh brush. In the beginning we chose Talus hopping but stopped after a few hours because of the risk. Plus Todd was 74 during this trip so if it was risky for us in our 30s and 40s then it was incredibly risky for him. So we bushwhacked until the brush became so thick that we had to cross the river, then did more of the same on the other side until we had to cross again. Wash-rinse-repeat. Sometimes we had to Talus hop while bushwhacking, which we couldn’t avoid but spiked our anxiety (try hopping huge boulders with someone trying to trip you). I think we crossed the river 13 times that day and we only made it 3 miles until we were forced to stop at 7 due to lack of light. We eventually had to call it a day and camp half a mile East from the first major bend in the Muro Blanco canyon. Everyone was exhausted so we went straight to bed on a Talus field that had filled in with some dirt. We slept well, all things considered, but were dreading the next day since we were making such slow progress. We had seen huge bear paw tracks and other tracks the entire trip down the MB and scared a few bears out of the bush on our trek that afternoon. That night we dreamed of big, wild animals.
Side note: for anyone considering shooting the Muro Blanco, I recommend bringing water shoes and full-leg compression leggings. You’ll need both as long pants catch on the thick bush and trip you and it takes a long time to take off your shoes to cross the river. Walking in the river is ‘sometimes’ a good idea but its very slippery and adds risk for ankle sprains or falls. Especially here, you need an SOS beacon. We all fell multiple times, cut up our shins and hands, and it was pure luck we didn’t hurt ourselves to the point where we couldn’t walk out on our own. The Muro Blanco is incredibly difficult, demanding, and risky. On a year like ours, it will take you two days to get through it and you’ll be forced to go slow for safety alone. It isn’t a route to be taken lightly and preparation goes a long way.
Day 5 – Muro Blanco to Upper Paradise Valley: we left at 5:45AM that morning and pushed through the rest of the canyon until we hit Upper Paradise and the trail (civilization!). It took us a full 12 hours to get through all of it and it was just as difficult as the day before. The only difference is that the bush changes as you descend. At around 8,500 ft you have tall green bushy branches that eventually turn into a woody orange-ish type bush that explodes orange pollen all over you if you brush up against it. Then the bush turns into ferns; all of these were chest to head high or more.
Finally around 6PM we found the Woods Creek trail and Upper Paradise Valley. Naveen and Jackson opted to push and exit that night; myself and Todd opted to camp at Middle Paradise and walk out the next morning. So we parted ways and I slept like a log, except for the final bear encounter that evening.
Day 6: Upper Paradise to Road’s End: the next morning Todd and I got up early and walked the final 7 miles to Road’s End in about three hours, only stopping to take pictures at Mist Falls. The only thing we could think of is taking a shower and eating breakfast at the lodge. Of course the showers were closed for the season and the lodge didn’t serve breakfast.
**EDIT: thanks for all of the interest everyone! I didn't think this would get as much attention as it did. Photos are below in the responses section. I hope everyone enjoys!
