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A River flowing slowly between the golden meadow with low clouds sitting on the mountains in the background.Some black cows were eating or resting on the meadow.
I found this is one of the most beautiful place in mammoth, the Owens river.
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Look at how huge the cloud is! It’s hard to see this kind of cloud in LA. It might be able to hide a sky castle in it like the one in Miyazaki’s animation movie?
With the previous day’s hike and one night sleep, I felt I am well adjusted to the altitude. Today we planned to go a bigger hike.
We came to the same trail head again. Today we got up much earlier and got a closer parking spot, but still surprised to see so many early birds took the closest parking already.
[singlepic id=364 w=320 h=240 float=left]The trail forks not far from the trail head and keeps going up quickly. Then we stood way beyond the lakes and had a great view of them which we past by yesterday. Ah, the names are really after the shapes. Box lake has a square shape. Here you see the Heart lake. The shape is just like a heart!
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Our turn around spot was Mono pass which is at 12,000 feet elevation, the ground is rocky and sandy, almost no plants growing, the scenary is more like moon surface.
[singlepic id=357 w=320 h=240 float=left]We finally decided to book the lodge on Thursday since the Yosemite is having a massive wild fire. When we arrived last night, the air quality was not bad.
We decided to go the little lake for the first day hike. The trail head is at mosquito flat, at rock creek where we stayed at the ledge a few years ago.
Soon I noticed the little lake area is very popular for hikers, backpackers. Not only the parking next to the trail head was completely full, but also the road sides were parked with cars. Finally we found a parking spot 2 miles away from the tail head.
The trail head locates as 10000ft high, start from Moskito flat at Rock creek. But the trail itself is pretty easy, no much up-downs, which is good for families with little kids. Also good for adjusting to the altitude before a bigger hike in this area.
[singlepic id=367 w=320 h=240 float=left]This trail might be the most beautiful one I’ve ever hiked in California. The view is gorgeous. The trail is next to a lovely creek with many beautiful lakes around. The meadow has some golden color and reminds me the scenary of yellow stone.
[singlepic id=371 w=320 h=240 float=left]The last photo is one of the panorama pictures taken with my iphone. Pretty awesome technology!
[singlepic id=370 w=320 h=240 float=left] On the way back I found some leaves turning into golder color already.
It starts at camp site of switzs fall, the trail follows a creek all the way. Even it was a hot day, there’s still a good amount of water in the creek, together with many small waterfalls, pools nearby.
Tiger lily seems love this area very much. I have never seen so many tiger lilies like here on a hiking in south California.
It’s my first time to hike up San Jasinto. We started from trail head close to Idllywild. The sign shows 5.25mile but actually it was 13miles for the whole route, according to the GPS.
San Jasinto is the second highest peak in south California, therefore on the list of many hikers who are interested in challenging higher and more difficult peaks.
I loved the beautiful forest we walked through. At a point we meet hikers who came up from the tram. That’s another way to hike up San Jasinto peak.
The peak was full of people. Some people were so enthusiastic in taking photos there, we left the peak shortly to avoid the congestion.
The elevation gain was 4400 feet, the highest one I ever did this year. I will be back!