Ansel Adams Wilderness, Sept. 2017

[Alex Wallace]

[jscott]

gosh that’s just so sweet. I’ve been through there so often but I don’t ever get tired of it. And that country is perfect for easy (and harder) cross country jogs. I mean, you can get right up onto the shoulders of Banner and Ritter and even Lyell without being in technical terrain. And the meadows, and the lakes and the hundred rushing streams. Sigh.

[Alex Wallace]

Thanks. It’s definitely one of my favorite places and there’s always somewhere new to explore even though I’ve been there over a dozen times now. This time I went up to Marie and Davis Lakes. Both beautiful, but the meadow below Marie is simply sublime.

[Rachel P]

I can see why it was named after Ansel Adams! That’s gorgeous scenery and your photos are fantastic.

[Alex Wallace]

Thanks, Rachel. No real photography skills here though. Mother Nature deserves all the credit. Well, maybe digital photography too. (Out of hundreds of shots I’m bound to capture a few decent ones.)

[Alex Wallace]

gear:

[Matthew / BPL]

Gorgeous photos. Thanks for sharing them.

[jscott]

Davis is usually empty of campers, in my experience. And it doesn’t have the winds typical at 1000 island. Still, if you start there, simply walking up onto the first ridge to the north of 1000 island–you have a photo near there–and then wandering up it towards Mt. Davis is really fun. From there it’s a breeze to get down to Davis lake. You could access Marie from there off trail too.

Marie lake is truly stunning don’t you think? Once when I was there the outlet stream was jumpable, and it looked like you could just wander on the Granite leading up to Lyell forever. I never did it though.

Oh and offtrailing from Waugh, or from the campsite near the junction with Marie lake, going northeast, will take you up to a series of lakes. Backpacker magazine gave a ‘photo of the month’ award to someone who shot the upper lake in this area, looking back towards Ritter/Banner.

Good stuff, not demanding at all!

[Alex Wallace]

Thanks, Matthew.

Jeffrey, Marie Lakes and the meadow below are about perfect in my book. Even better, I didn’t see a soul while I was there, which is pretty darn amazing considering it’s shouting distance to the JMT/PCT.

Looking back towards Thousand Island Lake’s west end en route to Garnet Lake from the pass.

Upper Garnet

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