r/SierraNevada

some pics taken from a recent road trip.

Stayed two nights on Oct. 8 and 9, camped at far south of the Long Lake and day trips to Chocolate Lakes loop and over Bishop Pass to Dusy Basin. Day temps were just perfect around 50 or so, night temps down to 35ish. Amazing experience all and all, especially the Chocolate Lakes loop and Ruwau lake were unexpectedly beautiful. Couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate my birthday!

I have done a few hikes now in the eastern part of the mountains. I have loved the scenery, but the trails themselves...I must have bad luck with my choices.

It's not the steepness, though this year in particular has been hard for some reason for my ability to handle steep trails. It's the consistency of the trails. The extremely rocky texture has been killer on my feet. The worst have been the metamorphic rocks in the overall area of Tioga Pass, after 5-6 miles of hiking on that terrain or more I feel more exhausted and pain than on some of my significantly longer hikes elsewhere.

In any case, I may be done for the year, but I plan on returning next year to try out some longer trails. I wanted to try out Virginia Lakes and June Lakes, and hopefully do some more in the Long Valley Caldera. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Desolation wilderness in fall is by far the best. 1st photo is from Fontanillis lake looking down te valley to Emerald bay

Did a quick overnight trip to bag Mount Gould on Thursday.

I wasn’t expecting any fall colors since it’s hot as hell still, but it was a great surprise. Ended up camping at Flower Lake and found the sickest camping spot there in my opinion.

I’ve done the hike up to Kearsarge Lakes in the past and it’s not too hard. The extension up to Mount Gould from Kearsarge Pass was brutal though.

The whole way up is a mix of scrambling up a bunch of talus/hiking up lots of loose scree. Towards the end it got better in terms of the scree.

The last push is just climbing up to the summit block, and it isn’t anything crazy, but the wrong move can have you fall down and get seriously injured or possibly even die depending on how you climbed up.

Had the summit to myself and even saw a bald eagle on top. I found it insane seeing it that high up considering it’s one of my favorite animals, so it was like the cherry on top.

Badass little hike that’s for sure!

Reflections were stunning, so I am attaching few pictures from different viewpoints.

"It’s going to be a flop," I thought. Then, the clouds opened up and let the sunrise glow through. What a way to start road trip seeking fall colors, am I right?

Not fully Hengst peak but just slightly to the right of it, such a beautiful lake aswell for only a couple miles!!!

This trail followed the treeline of the lesser visited part of Ritter Range, stringing together a series of lakes: Ashley, Anona, Holcomb, and Beck. I started from Lake George in Mammoth at sunrise and stopped by Rainbow Falls first. It was so early that there were no people around. The water was running low, but the falls still looked nice. From there on, the trail becomes much fainter and less visited as it weaves in and out of the Ritter Range treeline. Ashley Lake was the most spectacular, with imposing Iron Mountain above it. I swam a few times, enjoyed long breaks, and got back to Devils Postpile for sunset.

Pretty hard to find a spot to get every 14'er in the Sierra lined up, but may have gotten it. Only Mt. Russell looks to be slightly hidden by the mass of Mt. Whitney. Hard to identify if the southern most peak is Langley or not. It could also Mt LeConte or something around that area since Langley is quite often in the shadow of that group south of Whitney.

Edit: "Langley" actually likely Russell.

Big pine day hike on 10/06/26 went to lakes 1-6 and summit lake. 2nd time hiking to the lakes and love this place. Would big pine be okay for backpacking for first time? Also is it worth staying more than one night? Would like to try next year

No hiking today but I did visit the Cardinal Village Resort up in Aspendell. Damn that place was like being transported back to grandma’s. Such a great spot. Food was great. Beer was cold. Folk were friendly. Highly recommend if you’re in the Bishop area.

Beautiful day yesterday in the Sierra. Day hiked Cloudripper via South Lake and the pipeline trail. Ended up being a much tougher day than expected due to Vagabond Peak being a bit more tedious than based on the trip reports I’ve seen. 12.25 miles round trip with 4700 feet of cumulative gain. 10 hours on trail.