TR Onion Valley to Charlotte Dome/Gardiner Pass

[jakelamson]

7/4/2020: Quick trip report about getting from Charlotte Lake to the Charlotte Dome campsites and Gardiner Pass. No snow was encountered on this trip and the mosquitos were pretty chill- I'd give it a 1 or 2 on the HST mosquito scale. All coordinates are WGS84

On older maps and currently on the caltopo basemap there is a trail that leads from Charlotte Lake over Gardiner pass into the Gardiner basin that is no longer maintained, however there is a trail pretty well marked with rock cairns leading to good campsites by Charlotte Dome. We attempted to roughly follow this trail up to Gardiner Pass but there are a few deviations I'd suggest- described as heading from Onion Valley to Gardiner Pass.

At the west end of Charlotte lake stick with obvious trail which will take you across the outlet stream from the lake, through a boulder field, and eventually through a wire fenced off area that is probably a mule camp. Immediately after entering the fenced off area the trail the trail takes a sharp right and crosses Charlotte creek again. We ended up missing this turn and did an hour of bushwhacking before finding the trail again. From there it is just following rock cairns.

At around N36.787 W118.470 the trail we were meant to be following supposedly diverged from the trail to Charlotte Dome but I would suggest sticking with the marked trail. About half a mile after that there is a flat area with a great view of Charlotte Dome and about 4-5 good campsites with a creek right by it. I suggest crossing the creek and instead of following the cairns (those presumably lead to the dome) turn right and head upstream of the creek. The reason for this is the trail as marked on old maps and caltopo appears to go through an avalanche debris field- crossing the creek by the campsite will let you avoid this. From there it's just keeping the avalanche on your right and walking up until you are on the pass!

Feel free to reply if you'd like more info.
Jake

[kpeter]

Thanks very much Jake. I did that route 26 years ago and never found the trail until getting close to the pass, where an old trail switchbacked up through the trees. I never crossed the creek--perhaps that was my problem. I stayed high and remember looking down into the valley at the willows and thanking my lucky stars that I had stayed high. I haven't been back since but have read numerous trail reports that convince me that the amount of traffic is keeping a route pretty well marked. I believe there has been a fire and significant slides since I was there, from other accounts. Those campsites sound intriguing.

[BSquared]

Yes, thanks much! This is a hike I'm contemplating for next year (when flying out from Vermont might be something other than insane ), and we'll look for that creek. What was your experience getting down the north side of Gardiner Pass?

[KathyW]

Thanks very much - Do you happen to have a GPX file of the route?