R03/R01 TR: Evolution Lake August 8-12, 2022
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2022 2:18 pm
I did not quite see the opportunity as I arrived at North Lake late in the morning. The skies had darkened and rumbles sounded, and it certainly looked like it would rain, maybe hard. But contrary to five days later when the sun was out in full force, it was easy to find a parking space midday, and there were cool shadows everywhere.
The trail starts through a lush drainage, flowery but a bit overripe. The monsoon season has been ample this year, somewhat counteracting a lean snow year. With moisture moving through, it did not take long before raindrops started to fall as switchbacks started up the long slope with looming granite abutments. Thankfully, the rumblings never turned violent this day due in large part to the continuous cloud cover; and the rain never became serious and subsided overnight at Lower Lamarck Lake.
Next morning clouds covered most of the sky but were moving rapidly to the Northeast and the air was fresh - definite positives in terms of potential thunderstorm activity. The columbines were in their glory, notably the ones with the lavender tinted tails waving in the wind, clustered around boulders on a gravelly slope leading to sparser realms of rock. A single day hiker quickly passed on his way to Lamarck Col and back. Only one other person was to be seen on this inclement day, a long backpacker also making fast time. The well-defined and maintained trail gets interrupted by granite boulders around Lamarck Col, entry way to Darwin Canyon, a marvelous canyon with a chain of lakes, varying in color from turquoise to a deep blue. The boulders present an obstacle course to circumvent especially along the first lake, where some of the effort can be alleviated by staying close to the shore. Once the lakes are passed, it’s smooth sailing down to Darwin Bench over glacier-leveled granite and meadows. The sky grew darker and a soaking rain commenced but would not last overnight.
Columbines and Mt Emerson
Shattered rock. By enlarging this image, you can barely make out a figure on Larmarck Col in the center.
Storm Clouds on a rainy afternoon at Darwin Bench.
Lupines at Darwin Bench
A use trail cuts straight down along the outlet stream from Darwin Bench. To get a flavor of the less well trodden and to make route-finding a little more interesting and to get a view, a shortcut can be taken here, although cliff edges and stabbing willows are obstacles. The traffic on the PCT below was waking up as this day featured more sun breaks and little threat of rain. Evolution Lake appeared as a sizable body of water that occupies the flattened middle of this glacial carved U-shaped canyon. Smooth granite surfaces allow for wandering most anywhere else on the canyon floor.
John Muir ventured into Evolution Valley in 1873, a year after the Earthquake of 1872 leveled Lone Pine and caused a vertical displacement as much as 20 feet and horizontal displacement as much as 40 feet. He encountered bighorn sheep as he entered from the South Fork the San Joaquin, and found the remains of three further up the way, perhaps victims of what must have been a profound shaking a year earlier, although he thought that they had been snowbound. Maps of these wondrous places in the Sierra were crude in those days and he was under the impression that he was heading for Mt Humphries. He was traveling in unknown territory and he may have had the sense that he was the first to travel this canyon since the time a river of ice occupied it thousands of years ago.
Mt Mendel and Mt Darwin form a large massif of granite that parallel both Darwin Canyon and Evolution Canyon. They have been shaken by earthquakes and stresses that run along East Side faults. As a result, they have innumerable cracks and huge tailings of rubble of all different sizes. They are not like the smooth, rounded domes of Yosemite or the domes further west. At Evolution Lake (Muir called it Millar Lake) it appears that he turned up the slope and faced the rubble and hacked ridges of Mt Mendel rising high above this canyon. It would have been an arduous and uncertain solo climb to the top of this unknown mountain far from where he left his companions, but he was enthralled by his first extended trip south of Yosemite and had enough energy to find his way to the summit and back.
Looking up at part of Mt Mendel from Evolution Lake
Evolution Lake and Mt Mendel
Not much solitude in summer is to be found at Evolution Lake in this day and age. On the morning of departure, the heavier clouds were dissolving away and leaving in their wake fine lines of fleecy white against the blue, which in turn drifted away. The sun as it rose higher above the southern ridges made prisms in the sky.
On the way out, it is good to have a memory of a backward look at Larmarck Col. Otherwise, it is easy to stray too far left into big boulders or too far right to the wrong col. Unfortunately, the sunlight was too harsh for more pictures of columbines.
Evolution Lake
Looking South at the Hermit from Darwin Bench
Mt Darwin and highest Darwin lake
The trail starts through a lush drainage, flowery but a bit overripe. The monsoon season has been ample this year, somewhat counteracting a lean snow year. With moisture moving through, it did not take long before raindrops started to fall as switchbacks started up the long slope with looming granite abutments. Thankfully, the rumblings never turned violent this day due in large part to the continuous cloud cover; and the rain never became serious and subsided overnight at Lower Lamarck Lake.
Next morning clouds covered most of the sky but were moving rapidly to the Northeast and the air was fresh - definite positives in terms of potential thunderstorm activity. The columbines were in their glory, notably the ones with the lavender tinted tails waving in the wind, clustered around boulders on a gravelly slope leading to sparser realms of rock. A single day hiker quickly passed on his way to Lamarck Col and back. Only one other person was to be seen on this inclement day, a long backpacker also making fast time. The well-defined and maintained trail gets interrupted by granite boulders around Lamarck Col, entry way to Darwin Canyon, a marvelous canyon with a chain of lakes, varying in color from turquoise to a deep blue. The boulders present an obstacle course to circumvent especially along the first lake, where some of the effort can be alleviated by staying close to the shore. Once the lakes are passed, it’s smooth sailing down to Darwin Bench over glacier-leveled granite and meadows. The sky grew darker and a soaking rain commenced but would not last overnight.
Columbines and Mt Emerson
A use trail cuts straight down along the outlet stream from Darwin Bench. To get a flavor of the less well trodden and to make route-finding a little more interesting and to get a view, a shortcut can be taken here, although cliff edges and stabbing willows are obstacles. The traffic on the PCT below was waking up as this day featured more sun breaks and little threat of rain. Evolution Lake appeared as a sizable body of water that occupies the flattened middle of this glacial carved U-shaped canyon. Smooth granite surfaces allow for wandering most anywhere else on the canyon floor.
John Muir ventured into Evolution Valley in 1873, a year after the Earthquake of 1872 leveled Lone Pine and caused a vertical displacement as much as 20 feet and horizontal displacement as much as 40 feet. He encountered bighorn sheep as he entered from the South Fork the San Joaquin, and found the remains of three further up the way, perhaps victims of what must have been a profound shaking a year earlier, although he thought that they had been snowbound. Maps of these wondrous places in the Sierra were crude in those days and he was under the impression that he was heading for Mt Humphries. He was traveling in unknown territory and he may have had the sense that he was the first to travel this canyon since the time a river of ice occupied it thousands of years ago.
Mt Mendel and Mt Darwin form a large massif of granite that parallel both Darwin Canyon and Evolution Canyon. They have been shaken by earthquakes and stresses that run along East Side faults. As a result, they have innumerable cracks and huge tailings of rubble of all different sizes. They are not like the smooth, rounded domes of Yosemite or the domes further west. At Evolution Lake (Muir called it Millar Lake) it appears that he turned up the slope and faced the rubble and hacked ridges of Mt Mendel rising high above this canyon. It would have been an arduous and uncertain solo climb to the top of this unknown mountain far from where he left his companions, but he was enthralled by his first extended trip south of Yosemite and had enough energy to find his way to the summit and back.
Looking up at part of Mt Mendel from Evolution Lake
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On the way out, it is good to have a memory of a backward look at Larmarck Col. Otherwise, it is easy to stray too far left into big boulders or too far right to the wrong col. Unfortunately, the sunlight was too harsh for more pictures of columbines.
Evolution Lake