Instead of another section of the Sierra High Route this summer, we decided it was time to explore the Desolation Wilderness that we've heard good things about. The best description I found was a "half-scale version of the Sierras" and that checks out. It was indeed a great place to roam around for a few days.
Robyn was game (yay!) so our backpack trio set out up the trail from Wrights Lake. You might have to look carefully to see the 3rd backpacker in this picture:
It was lovely to be back among the big white rocks. We climbed up past Twin Lakes toward the end of the valley:
Island Lake had a nice camping spot so we pitched our tents and started making plans for the week. It was a bit odd not having a specific route to follow this time. Just go explore and see what you find.
Day 1:
Back to granite slabs!
(Squirrels? Chipmunks?) watch us eat
Things dry fast again
We started with a day hike (because why carry all the stuff every day if you don't have to?) and I had designs on climbing a couple peaks to the south. We're looking rather chipper this morning:
Someone really loves this place:
We have reached the talus, with a view of Island Lake and our valley home for a couple nights:
John shows us the way:
Other people have been here with time on their hands and hearts in their minds:
A chilly-looking little lake:
Trekking amid granite boulders of various shapes:
John is probably wondering how he ended up in the snow in August... AGAIN!
Our first view of massive Lake Aloha - let's go there tomorrow!
Climbing the ridge toward Mount Price, which turned out to be a bit more technical than I had expected:
This seems like high enough. I wasn't overly driven to reach the summit, just happy to have tried:
Plus the views are pretty dang good from there! Robyn's right foot apparently doesn't want to look:
On our way down we unexpectedly came across an old plane crash site:
Relaxing after our "big day" - John could sleep here for sure:
After supper John climbed up the slope on the other side of the lake and took some beautiful sunset shots:
Our lake valley and the evening alpenglow:
I think this boulder is rusting? It was left out in the rain too long:
Good night from our cozy tent:
Day 2:
Lazy morning start
Checking out passes and Price
Day hiking is fun!
The next morning we packed up camp and made our way around the lake, admiring the area as we went - thank you Island Lake!
We had scouted (from a distance) the pass between Island and Clyde lakes, and it continued to work as we climbed up toward it, zigzagging up grey and white granite slabs:
This felt very much like the Sierras, where you could point in a direction and odds are that you could go there (not always, of course, but more times than you might expect). It was weird not having Roper to guide us though. We would just have to figure things out on our own.
One last look at Island Lake:
Pausing at what feels like an actual "pass" (complete with walls) while John gets a sense of where we might aim for next:
"I think we'll start there and then circle around to here and then climb up over there..."
We traversed a relatively straightforward hillside to the spur above Mosquito Pass. Nicely done, John!
It seemed like we were making good progress toward Aloha Lake, taking ledges down toward a lovely spot where we stopped for a snack break. Shade, delicious water to filter, a beautiful view. Robyn and I were enjoying all of this when John returned from a scouting walk with the proclamation, "It's a dire situation."
We looked at each other and then it mostly just made us laugh! John isn't usually so deadpan serious. OK, we actually did have a challenge in front of us. There were cliffs below us and nothing John could see to the south was obviously passable.
The next part took a while, working our way across, downhill when possible, over more ledges, finally reaching a steep talus slope that required a careful descent into this bowl. We got there eventually and could admire the streams of water falling over the large rock faces:
Pausing for a moment to check out a few flowers - not plentiful like in Washington but at least they were strangely shaped:
We hiked for a while above the south shore of Lake Aloha, thinking we could see our goal of Pyramid Lake over on ahead:
That turned out to be overly optimistic. At least the walking was easy and fun.
One more small/simple pass and then we were on our way down to Pyramid Lake where we hoped to camp for a couple nights:
This almost looks like a Polaroid picture, with that particular lighting plus Robyn's external frame pack:
We had to search around a bit but eventually found a lovely camp spot near a stream spilling down from Pyramid Peak. This is one of the more remote places in the park and we mostly had it to ourselves. Very nice.
Day 3:
Real SHR day
"It's a dire situation"
Made it to a creek :)
(Note re: the pronunciation of "dire" - it probably has 2 syllables, especially when spoken by a native Texan, but for the sake of the haiku I'm going with the way I say it)
We set off on a day hike the next morning to scout our exit for the following day, figuring out a route past little lakes and across Desolation Valley over to a well-used trail. Right turn, down the hill, and there was the pretty Lake of the Woods. Robyn and Cathy had camped here many years ago when they backpacked the PCT - good choice:
Checking out an interesting tree shape while Robyn documents the location to share the memory with Cathy:
I had the goal (again) of climbing a mountain, and this one has a trail to the top so the chances of reaching it were much higher this time. Soon we were at the top of Ralston Peak with great views. We could even see Lake Tahoe (upper left of the photo):
Circling around to the left for a glimpse of Lake of the Woods and Lake Aloha:
And a shot of me to confirm that I was up there too...
We descended past Lake of the Woods and down toward Ropi Lake, hoping to find a route back to Pyramid. Originally we considered trying to descend to the top of Horsetail Falls but that seemed like a bigger quest than we wanted to tack on. Which was good because all options to either side of Ropi would have involved a major stream crossing.
So instead we veered right on a detour heading up toward Desolation Lake. Which was also good because we got to see a super-long, babbling, jumping, sliding, falling waterfall that dropped over granite slabs perhaps 300 feet from top to bottom:
Impossible to really show in pictures, but believe me it was awesome (and loud):
And a close-up for good measure:
We closed out the day weaving between little lakes, finding a narrow channel where we could cross the creek with dry feet, and trekking over a saddle back to our tents in time for supper.
Day 4:
More day hiking fun
To Desolation places
One summit, one lake
