We were meeting with friends for a long weekend in Mammoth Lakes. To make the long trip even more worth it, we drove up a week early for some backpacking.
From home we drove straight to Mosquito Flats and camped in the backpackers campground across the creek from the parking lot.
Mono Pass (south)
Day 1:
We headed into Little Lakes Valley and then took the Mono Pass turnoff. The trail up to the pass is very gentle. The last few hundred feet below the pass are very rugged with no vegetation and big rocks. The north side of the pass all the way past Summit Lake is very sandy and also a desert.
Just below Summit Lake the first view of Pioneer Basin opens up. Since there are no good campsites on the north side of the pass until one gets down to the level of Fourth Recess Lake we went to the lake for our first camp.
Day 2:
We hiked from Fourth Recess Lake to the first lake in Pioneer Basin, found a great campsite, set up camp, and had a nice lunch break. Afterwards we explored Pioneer Basin.
Day 3:
After breakfast we started our hike back towards Mono Pass and set up camp at Trail Lakes. The site we picked had some nice rocks to nap, read, and experiment with the new, small solar panel, and wait for the sunset.
Day 4:
Hike out back to the truck and drive down Rock Creek Road. At Tom’s place we pull over to research motels in Bishop and Mammoth Lakes, to our surprise there were some affordable options available in Mammoth.
Mono Pass (north) and Bloody Canyon
After a day and two nights in Mammoth we drove to Walker Lake to hike up the other Mono Pass. The break in Mammoth aligned perfectly with the weather. A system with thunderstorms moved through. Higher elevations even got a dusting of snow. We watched the weather from the truck and checked the radar images to discover that the pass we had been on just 24 h before was in the middle of a thunderstorm.
Day 1:
From the Sawmill Canyon trailhead we followed the trail over the ridge to Walker Lake and then up Bloody Canyon to Lower Sardine Lake. Here we found a nice camp spot for the next couple of nights. This route was used to cross the Sierra in the 1800’s before wagon roads were built and is named for the injuries to stock that made this rugged crossing. Here is what William H. Brewer had to say about it in his journal ( from “Up and Down California in 1860-1864”) coming down from Mono Pass:
“After crossing the pass, the way leads down Bloody Canyon – a terrible trail. You would all pronounce it utterly inaccessible to horses, yet pack trains come down, but the bones of several horses or mules and the stench of another told that all had not passed safely…. It was a bold man who first took a horse up there. The horses were so cut by sharp rocks that they named it ‘Bloody Canyon,’ and it has held the name – and it is appropriate – part of the way the rocks in the trail are literally sprinkled with blood from the animals.”
I came across another reference to the roughness of the route when I was curious where Sardine Lake got it’s name:
“In descending a precipitous slope to a seemingly bottomless lake, situated about one mile below the head of the canyon proper, one of the pack mules, heavily laden with kegs of whisky, fell and rolled into the lake, carrying with him in his descent another mule loaded with cases of sardines, no trace of either mules or packs ever being seen afterward and to this day that beautiful sheet of water is known as Sardine Lake.” (Homer Mining Index, Jan. 5, 1884.)” (via “Place Names of the Sierra Nevada”)
Day 2:
While Srisuda relaxed at camp I did a 16 mile / 4,440 ft gain hike to Koip and Kuna Peaks. The route went over Mono Pass and Parker Pass to Koip Pass. From the later it’s an easy off-trail route essentially straight up to Koip Peak (staying a bit to the left leads to some use trail sections). From Koip Peak to Kuna Peak is a short, but fairly slow scramble over talus. At the saddle between the two peaks some debris from an aircraft crash can be found. A Consolidated B-24E Bomber crashed here in 1943.
On this hike I was exposed to the effects of the wildfire that was burning in Yosemite. In the morning I saw some smoke in the distance towards Tuolumne Meadows/Tioga Pass Rd. In the afternoon I could smell smoke even on the peaks and visibilty towards Tioga Pass Rd was bad. Later is was determined that the fire was not a wildfire, but caused by an illegal campfire.
Day 3:
Hike out and drive to Mammoth Lakes to meet the others. We took the scenic route past Silver Lake and June Lake rather than the faster Hwy 395.
Mammoth Lakes
During our long weekend in Mammoth Lakes we enjoyed catching up with friends we had not seen in a while, checking out the various lakes, and taking a couple of fun hikes. One along the ridge from Minaret Vista point towards Deadman Pass. The wind on this one was very strong. Another hike was from Horseshoe Lake to Lake George along the Rim Trail. This one had an annoying ~400ft climb up a sandy slope, but was otherwise very enjoyable with nice weather and views.
