» little lakes valley
With a heat wave hitting southern California and temperatures rising above 100 in the city we were staying, just 30 miles from the trailhead, we were a little worried that this hike would be miserably hot. It wasn't though, it was actually perfectly pleasant. My thermometer, which may have been warmed from being in my pocket, still maxed out at 74 degrees, 30 degrees cooler than in the town of Bishop, 5,000 feet of elevation away.

So, the heat wasn't so bad but the mosquitoes were. Below timberline you couldn't really stop to soak in the scenery without being swarmed by mosquitoes. This did not really detract much from the experience though. It's a beautiful area and there is just something fascinating about the way water cascades down mountainsides from melting snowfields, then trickles from lake to lake on it's way to lower ground. Some people claim that this is the result of some magical invisible force called "gravity".

Little Lakes Valley has the distinction of having the highest trailhead in the Eastern Sierras at 10,300' and also the most popular. We got to the trailhead at 8am on a Monday and saw a few other hikers that we quickly passed and then we did not see anyone else but a few fishermen on the rest of the way in. On the way back the trail was more crowded, but nothing too crazy.

If you want to know more about the trails in this area, I recommend this map: Mono Divide High Country Trail Map

Wildflowers along the trail.

Box Lake.

Me hiking through a creek and Megan hiking over one.

Rock Creek below Pyramid Peak and Bear Creek Spire.

Left: Bear Creek Spire above Rock Creek. Right: Long Lake Reflection.

Reflections on Gem Lakes.

Left: Indian Paintbrush. Right: Columbine (Taken by Megan).

Gem Lakes from above. I don't think it comes through too well in this picture but the water was a bright emerald green.

Melting snow. The pink color is from snow algae and the effect is sometimes referred to as watermelon snow.

Left: Nothing but rocks, snow, and lakes above timberline. On the left is Pyramid Peak and on the right is Bear Creek Spire. Right: Snow and ice on the edge of a small pool.

A different look at the same pool.

Looking down on Treasure Lakes.

Looking back at Little Lakes Valley from above Gem Lakes.

Gem Lakes.

Treasure Lakes again. There was a nice rumble of falling water in this area. Here you can barely see one waterfall coming down from the mountain on the left, and another on the right, between the upper and lower lakes.

Views from the trail.

Mount Abbot towering above Long Lake.

Creek.

» lone pine

Mount Whitney as seen from the Whitney Portal Road in Alabama Hills, just outside of Lone Pine, California. Whitney is the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States and rises over 10,000 feet above the Owens Valley, where this picture was taken from.

Lone Pine Peak, right next to Whitney.

» highway 395
The foreground of these pictures are blurred because they were taken from a speeding car.

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