Little Lakes Valley viewed from about 11,000 feet elevation, hiking along the Mono Pass Trail, Eastern Sierra Mountains, California – mono14x
Image by mlhradio
Hiking on the trail from the Little Lakes Valley up to Mono Pass, in the eastern Sierra of California. A view up the valley (southward), from about the 11,000 foot level, towards Morgan Pass in the far distance, the Little Lakes Valley in view below.
Mono Pass Trail Hike, Little Lakes Valley, California. Located about a half an hour from Bishop, the Little Lakes Valley is one of the easiest access points to the High Sierra in California. Turning off from Highway 395 at the junction of Tom’s Place, a paved road leads straight up into the mountains, terminating at a place in the John Muir Wilderness called Mosquito Flat just over 10,000 feet in elevation (one of the highest elevation paved roads in the state). From here, you can take the relatively easy hike among the glacier-carved lakes along the Little Lakes Valley and Rock Creek. Or, you can take the more challenging paths, up into the mountains.
From the trailhead at the valley floor, the trail follows along Rock Creek for the first half mile, until you reach a junction, turning left abruptly up along the flanks of Mount Starr. Climbing steadily for the next mile up to 11,000 feet, where a small spur leads off to Ruby Lake, situated at the very edge of the treeline. The trail then turns left again, heading around the southern edge of Mount Starr, climbing higher and getting more rugged with each step.
Turning northward, leaving the last of the hardy vegetation behind, it’s a landscape of greys and browns, bare rock and lichens. Finally passing over the wide saddle of Mono Pass at 12,000 feet at the 3 1/4 mile mark, it’s like a moonscape. Even at this extreme elevation, this is one of the more easily accessible path over the nearly-impassable Inconsolable Range of mountains, and this pass has been used for centuries by Indian tribes and (later) explorers. Yet it is only snow-free for a few short months during the late summer and early fall.
From here, the trail levels out, dropping slightly to Summit Lake half a mile to the north – a clear blue snow-fed depression at 11,900 feet. From here, the trail continues along the western slopes of the Sierra Crest, first to a little cirque called Fourth Recess, then into Pioneer Basin – far too remote for a day hike and reserved for only the dedicated backpackers. I turned around and returned back along the Mono Pass Trail, down to Ruby Lake and then back to the Little Lakes Valley. Sunburned and exhausted but satisfied to have explored this remote corner of California.
This is a popular place to hike, and there are plenty of other photographs of the region by others on the internet. For more information, here are a few websites to visit:
Hiker Technologies, including topographical map
Natural Born Hikers
Unique Design
Picture taken September 29, 2007. Photo #14 of 70 in my Mono Pass Trail photoset.
This photograph is free for use on the internet under the ‘Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial’ license. You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and/or adapt this photograph without seeking permission first, as long as you provide attribution to the photograph (preferably by linking to this web page, or including the phrase ‘Copyright Matthew Lee High’), and as long as the the photo is not used for commercial purposes. For more information about Creative Commons licenses, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en.
Note 3/08: This is my second photo with ’100 views’ on Flickr. Thanks everyone!
Note 8/08: Yay! This is my very first photo to reach ’200 views’ on Flickr! Huzzah!
Note 1/09: This is my first photo to reach ’500 views’ on Flickr.
Hiking on Madeira island, where Nature reigns supreme
=however, it is less attractive for hiking. By contrast to the raw north-western area, the climate in the south-west is pleasantly mild. Calheta has a small sandy beach – the only one on the entire island – which was artificially created with sand brought in from the Portuguese mainland.
Read more on EARTHtimes.org
Hiking For Yankton
Thirty-one kids participated in the summer hiking program sponsored by Keep Yankton Beautiful. The group hiked around the Summit Center, did a mini Great American Cleanup, had a trash and recyclable objects treasure hunt, and the kids drew or wrote their vision of what the world would look like if people stopped focusing on litter reduction and recycling, and how it would look if that focus was …
Read more on Yankton Press & Dakotan
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