High Sierra Topix

Hi all, long time lurker, most of my excursions for the past few decades have been 2-4 nights out of crabtree or giannelli. After a 4 year hiatus (kids) i am coming back to my favorite place on the planet. I want to get my kids down to Hyatt. I remember years ago running into some folks who said they didn't come out of crabtree, they drove up a service road south of Hyatt and hiked in from there. That has stuck with me because that would mean I could likely get the kids in to Big and Yellowhammer as well in a 3 nighter. Does anyone know what that person was talking about? I'm not seeing it on CalTopo.

Thank you!

The Bourland Creek trailhead has access to Hyatt. I think that's what you might be thinking. It's not perfectly straightforward, but you can find threads about it here.

I've done it, happy to talk you through the route if you are interested.

Thanks, that's exactly what I was thinking, yes, and thank you! I just called the ranger and they said they hadn't been out there to check the road this year and couldn't verify if there were trees down or not. So I'm probably not going to risk the 20 miles of primitive road this time as I can't find beta/info about it here or on FB.

I was at Bourland trailhead a few weeks ago and the road was free of trees. The last couple of miles of road is kind of rutted and high clearance is recommended. There were a number of 2wd vehicles at the trailhead but they appeared to be owned by kayaking aficionados that might be more willing to take a risk with their travels. Last year there was a fire in the bourland area and some of the use trail towards west fork cheery creek can be fairly hard to follow due to the redecorating.

Oh thank you! I have a lifted 4runner so should be ok...but it sounds like my crew all wants to go in via Crabtree anyway. Good idea for a 2nd trip in September though.