Recommendations for 20 mile trip in SEKI

[Andrew Sorenson]

I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a trip for my son and I in SEKI or nearby? I'm looking to be out for 3 or 4 days, and we want to go 20 to 25 miles round trip. I was looking at Ranger Lakes out of Lodgepole, but I'm wondering what else might be good. We did Rae Lakes loop last year, so maybe everything else will be anticlimactic. Leaving in ten days.

[Bob Gross]

Bearpaw High Sierra Camp along the High Sierra Trail. From Crescent Meadow, it is about 11 miles one way.

–B.G.–

[Andrew Sorenson]

That looks like a great place. I had no idea it existed. I am however, hoping to find a less inhabited destination. Maybe out of Florence Lake or Courtright Reservoir? I know there are a thousand trails, but finding specifics on any of them has been challenging.

[Bob Gross]

"Maybe out of Florence Lake or Courtright Reservoir?"

One problem is that those places are not in SEKI, and you would have to walk for a day or two just to get into SEKI. There is quite a number of trailheads that are a day or two outside of the parks, and only a few that are closer. Onion Valley is just a few hours of walk from Kings Canyon at Kearsarge Pass, but I would not call that area less inhabited.

SEKI has a web site with all of the major trails listed with descriptions. Then, you can check those against the trails with quotas that are already taken by reservation. Those are the most popular trails. Then you pick a trail that nobody else is picking.

If you drive to Cedar Grove, try hiking up the Lewis Creek Trail over Kennedy Pass and Granite Pass, and down the Copper Creek Trail to Roads End.

–B.G.–

[Author]

Posts