Route Request - Double Overnight Late July

[BauhausBear]

Hi All,

My fiancé and I have finally found ourselves a great little backpacking team. The six of us are all LA based and are of roughly equal experience (L2), risk tolerance (Class 2/3), time availability (double overnight/ 3 day weekend), and fitness level (15-27 mile r/t).

We just did the full premier loop at Crystal Cove last weekend as a single overnight and it was a breeze. We are looking for recommendations for a trip that includes lakes & big mountain views somewhere in the Sierras. The closer to LA the better. I was originally thinking sawtooth pass out of mineral king but the access road to the trail head seems to be closed given this years snowpack.

We are ok with altitude as we are all skiers and none of us have a dog. Loop is preferred but out and back or point to point are ok given our car situation. This will be all of our first backpacking trip to the Sierras but are all confident hikers (for reference Clouds Rest, Yosemite falls, 5 lakes up by alpine meadows in Tahoe are all in our wheel house). We would like to avoid river crossing and material snow traverses. We are looking to go the weekend of July 27th.

I look forward to your recommendations!

[wildhiker]

Back in 2013, my wife and I (then in our 60s) did a nice two night loop backpack entirely on trails in the area where Kings Canyon NP, Sequoia NP, and the Jennie Lakes Wilderness (on Sequoia NF) all meet. No permit is needed for the Jennie Lakes Wilderness portion, but you do need a permit for the parks section; for the loop I describe, you need the "Belle Canyon" permit. I see on recreation.gov that permits for Belle Canyon are mostly still available for all of July, so you should have no trouble getting one. We started at the Rowell Meadow trailhead on the Sequoia NF, off the "Big Meadows" road. The road to the trailhead was passable in an ordinary sedan. We hiked through Rowell Meadow, over the low pass to its south, and down to Belle Canyon, where you ford Sugarloaf Creek. This is near its headwaters, so should not be too deep. We continued on the other side up to Lost Lake, where we camped. The second day we hiked over to Ranger Lake, up and over Silliman Pass, down past Twin Lakes to the JO Pass trail jct, then up that trail to JO Pass, and then traversed over to Jennie Lake, where we camped. On the last day, we took the short trail back down to Rowell Meadow and then the trailhead, with plenty of time to drive home.

I believe this loop would satisfy your cravings for lakes and views of big mountains. The question is whether it will be sufficiently snow-free by late July. The high point is Silliman Pass at 10,200 feet elevation, but most of the route is at 8,000 to 9,000 foot elevation. According to the Sentinel Hub satellite view, right now the trail is almost all snow free as far as Lost Lake, and then almost all snow covered beyond there. Chances are good for a snow free trail, except perhaps on the north side of Silliman Pass, by the end of July. You can also do a shorter out and back hike that just goes to the Lost Lake and Ranger Lake areas, climbing part way up Silliman Pass for the views (actually, the views are best part way up - no views at the pass itself). In that case, you should also check out scenic Seville Lake, on a spur trail up Belle Canyon from where the trail crosses Sugarloaf Creek. By the way, the "short cut" trail on the topo from the pass south of Rowell Meadow down to Seville Lake basically does not exist anymore. I was told this by the backcountry ranger at Roaring River in 2017, and was unable to locate it myself on my way out.

-Phil

[Wandering Daisy]

Have you any information on the condition to the road to the trailheads? Cannot remember the name of the road, but we drove the road 2 years ago and it seemed that it could easily be damaged to the point of being unusable. It has steep hillsides like the road to Roads End so I would not be surprised if it has problems too. It is a FS road, not SEKI road.

[shawnterustic]

Have you any information on the condition to the road to the trailheads? Cannot remember the name of the road, but we drove the road 2 years ago and it seemed that it could easily be damaged to the point of being unusable. It has steep hillsides like the road to Roads End so I would not be surprised if it has problems too. It is a FS road, not SEKI road.

I was thinking this same thing - we drove the road (FS 14S11 / Big Meadows Road) to Rowell Meadow TH last year and commented during the drive that it didn't seem like it would take much for that far section to get banged up in a heavy winter. I haven't seen any reports yet. @BauhausBear - you will definitely want to keep an eye open for reports on road conditions, or give Sequoia NF a ring beforehand if you head out that way. That said, I think @wildhiker's suggestions are excellent - I took some folks out to do this loop last year and they loved it!

[jôhorn]

FS 14S11 / Big Meadows Road was closed at the gate when I was up there weekend before last. There were a few patches of snow past the gate with tire tracks indicating someone had driven through. It's still listed at closed according to the latest report dated June 14. Click on Hume Lake Ranger District Recreation Report under Fire Restrictions here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/main/sequoia/home

[BauhausBear]

Thanks for the suggestion. Looks like access to Jennie Lakes is still closed. Any other recommendations where we know we have open access roads?

FWIW we have a Jeep Wrangler that can easily handle some beaten up trails. As long as it’s legal to drive we can make it down.

[jfbruin34]

My post https://www.highsierratopix.com/commun ... hp?t=21217 back in 2021 might help you here. Coming from LA (I’m in north county SD) the SE trailheads from Lone Pine to Bishop area are a great starting point.

Since that post, we’ve done a few of the suggested itineraries and they were all amazing:
- Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne: a bit further from LA and would recommend 3 nights, but unreal
- Thousand Island Lake and Garnet Lake going up High Trail and down Shadow Creek
- Sabrina Basin up to Hungry Packer Lake: closer to LA, stunning and fewer people.

Def keep an eye on snow + mosquito conditions this year. We’ve got wilderness permits for Onion Valley over Kearsarge Pass for 2 nights, and Big Pine Creek is high on my list if we can ever get permits!

Good luck!

[windknot]

Note that if you still want to hike to Jennie Lake and beyond, you can start from the Stony Creek campground instead of Big Meadow/Fox Meadow. It's significantly more elevation gain as Stony Creek campground is at 6,500 feet vs. Fox Meadow at 7,900 feet, but if the Big Meadow Road is still closed then Jennie Lake is only 5.5 miles from Stony Creek. I hiked this as a day trip in June 2010 and hiked on snow for the last few miles, which is about how the snow coverage looks currently.

[BauhausBear]

Tell me if I’m reading this wrong but the entire Jennie Lakes wilderness area is closed still.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/sequoia ... ecid=79914

[stephen_sd]

@BauhausBear

The last recreation report (June 29, 2023) is here:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DO ... 117620.pdf
"Jennie Lakes Wilderness: Open Be prepared for snowy hiking and camping conditions."

The backpacking page lists Big Meadow trailhead as open but Marvin Pass and Rowell as closed - not sure when it was last updated?
https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/sequoia ... ecid=79569

-Stephen