Sequoia National Park just before the Creek Fire

norwegianxplorer

norwegianxplorer

Norwegian Xplorer
Joined
Apr 1, 2018
Messages
111
On my way between Mount Langley and Mount Whitney the days before the Creek Fire broke out, I discovered some of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen high up in the Miter Basin, I went from the forested meadow in the middle Miter Basin, which was covered in smoke the night before and up to Sky Blue Lake, this is mostly route finding off-trail, stay to the left of the upper waterfall and there are many possible routes. As you round Sky Blue Lake on the left side, you start to climb at the head of the lake and have to go around an impassable sections to the left again, there are occasional cairns and trails every now an then as you turn right again and get up to the beautiful lake that appears to be the upper lake in the basin, its not, but its pretty. Make your way up to a high ridge to the left and scramble up to the most beautiful lake I ever saw, period, it looks somewhat like Grand Prismatic Springs in Yellowstone, this is actually the upper lake in the Miter Basin, but it doesn’t show on some maps. Only about half a mile from here and up the moderate class 2 Crabtree pass. Going down the Crabtree pass on the western side is a different matter entirely, one of the most scary things I have done on a pass is going down the west side of Crabtree Pass. I chose to do some class 3 and 4 scrambling instead of staying with the main route, just to have something solid to hold on to. Going west to east over Crabtree Pass would not have been scary at all since the east side is pretty mellow. From the pass I head down the Crabtree basin, staying to the right of the upper lake and make camp in a beautiful spot over the middle Crabtree Lake, many amazing camp opportunities in this area. Make your way over some high sections to the right of this lake to continue down the basin. Some of this day is a part of the Sierra High Route/Trail, not to be confused with High Sierra Trail. This is a video also takes me all the way down to the PCT through the Crabtree Basin and Crabtree Meadows are to meet some friends that I will summit Mount Whitney with a few days later. This stunning middle part of this trip really blew my mind in so many ways! Enjoy, and if you like off trail amazingness put the Miter Basin on your list!


Sequoia National Park
 
Rock Creek/Miter basin is pretty nice. Glad you made it before the 2 months of smoke we've had now.
 
I went North to South over Crabtree Pass at the beginning of August. The colors of the lakes up high in Miter Basin made me want to go swimming, but I chickened out because the water was too cold :)
 
wsp_scott said:
I went North to South over Crabtree Pass at the beginning of August. The colors of the lakes up high in Miter Basin made me want to go swimming, but I chickened out because the water was too cold :)
Click to expand...
It was cold lol, I didnt have time for a swim, should have had an extra day in there
 
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