Rattlesnake Creek, Kern Canyon, and Little Five Lakes 2015
August 21 – Mineral King to Franklin Lakes
August 22 – Franklin Lakes to Rattlesnake Creek
August 23 – Rattlesnake Creek to Kern Hot Springs
August 24 – Kern Hot Springs to Moraine Lake
August 26 – Big Arroyo to Little Five Lakes
August 27 – Little Five Lakes to Spring Lake
August 28 – Spring Lake to Monarch Lakes
August 29 – Monarch Lakes to Mineral King
On
this year's trip we intended to visit Kaweah Basin, which is north of
Mt. Kaweah on the map below. Due to long days (over-agressive
planning) and risk of smoke from the Rough Fire farther north, we opted
to cut the loop short and instead follow the High Sierra Trail over the
Chagoopa Plateau. As we had cut off our only off-trail, we opted
for some at the very end of the trip, traversing over Glacier Pass to
get back to Mineral King. We had thick smoke several days from
the Rough Fire, west of Cedar Grove and northwest of our route.
There was also a small fire buring below Big Five Lakes that we could
see from Chagoopa Plateau, but the smoke from this fire was not
significant. Other than smoke, the weather on this trip was
excellent, the only precipitation we had was a few sprinkles when we
were at Big Arroyo.
