Moose Lake: Sequoia National Park

September 9-11, 2005

 

Brief Summary: Harry and I headed out to Moose Lake on a three day backpacking trip in early September. The first day of hiking brought with it snow flurries and encounters with bear and deer. We spent the first night at Pear Lake. If you like solitude, then you might want to skip Pear Lake, as it is a very popular backpacking destination. Day two brought lots of cross-country travel and our first views of Moose Lake. The lake provided excellent fishing opportunities, great camping, and complete solitude. The third day offered up more cross-country hiking and inspiring views. More details can be found with the photos and there captions below.

 

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Day One: Wolverton to Pear Lake

Within the first ten minutes of the hike, Harry and I encountered a bear. The bear paid no attention to us until he finally got a wiff of the food in our packs. The bear slowly approached us but seemed more interested in pine cones rather than what we had to eat.

 

We continued up the trail as the weather turned colder. Clouds thickened and soon we were hiking through sporadic showers of graupel and ice pellets. By the time we reached the Watchtower, it had all changed to snow. The temperature was in the low 30s and the fog was thick. However, after about 15 minutes of snow, the sun began to come out. We continued up the trail and soon passed Heather Lake.

 

We reached Pear Lake later that evening and decided to stop here for the night. The weather was still quite cold but the snow had stopped.

 

This is where we set up camp for the first night.

 

...and this is the view of Pear Lake from the tent.

 

The last few rays of sun to end day 1.

 

The clouds cleared, revealing a ton of stars. The mountains you see were lit by the moon.

 

More star trail pictures. You can see the Big Dipper above the tent.

 

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Day Two: Pear Lake to Moose Lake

The next we set off from Pear Lake in search of Moose Lake. The hike was completely trailess. We decided the best route would be to ascend the slope on the northwest side of Pear Lake, and then head east across the confusing landscape of the Tablelands. The route was very rocky and all of it was above timberline. We've heard quite a few stories of many people who set out for Moose Lake but never found it. Luckily, this was not our fate. A little after lunch, we topped out on an 11,000+ ft ridgeline and claimed our first glimpse of Moose Lake.

 

Moose Lake (10,530 ft). The Great Western Divide is hidden in the clouds.

 

Just like on day one, the clouds began to roll in across the lake.

 

Harry snaps one last pitcure of the lake and then the fog rolled in. The descent was tricky and steep. There is a much better route down to the lake for sure, but with the fog rolling in, we wanted to get down there.

 

This was camp on day two. We had the entire lake all to ourselves. The hustle and bustle of the city seemed a world away. Look up Complete Solitude in the dictionary and you're likely to find a picture of Moose Lake.

 

The fishing was phenomenal! The lake was full of hungry, large, colorful trout. These are some of the best looking fish I've ever seen in the Sierra!

 

Harry shows off his catch.

 

Fog started rolling in and the weather once again turned quite cold. Harry wasn't in shorts for much longer.

 

Harry tries for more fish as steam fog rises from the lake.

 

Neat little steam devils began to form along the boundary between the sunshine and the mountain's shadow on the lake's surface.

 

This is a zoom/crop of the steam devil from the 2nd photo above. It was hard getting pictures of them, but they were impressive in person.

 

The fish stop biting as dense fog settled over the lake.

 

We give up fishing when we could no longer see where we were casting.

 

Once again, after dinner, the clouds and fog lifted. The temperature that evening was around 30 degrees.

 

View across Moose Lake from the tent.

 

The last rays of the sun filter through the clouds above the nearby peaks.

 

Twighlight at Moose Lake.

 

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Day Three: Moose Lake to Wolverton, via Alta Meadow

 

The third day started off sunny and cold. The temperature outside at 0700 according to the thermometer was 26 degrees.

 

One last view east across Moose Lake. After this, we packed up and headed out of the mountains. A long day of cross country hiking lay ahead of us, and I had to be back home early that night to get at least a few hours sleep before heading to work the next morning.

 

We began the long climb out. The views from above Moose Lake were classic. We could pretty much see every peak along the crest from northern Kings Canyon south to Mineral King.

 

Harry gives his signature 'thumbs up' pose above 11,000 ft. In the background is Moose lake, the Great Western Divide, and the Sierra Crest.

 

Our last view of Moose Lake before we head toward an ~11,200 ft unnamed peak east of Alta Peak.

 

Backcountry view of Sequoia National Park.

 

View of the rolling terrain in the western Sierra.

 

Yours truly, arms outstretched on the unnamed peak (~11,200 ft) east of Alta Peak. I was cast into shadow from a passing cloud as this picture was taken. The climb up involved a trailess scramble across a large boulder field and a knife-edged ridge. The climb was compounded by the fact we were each carrying 35 lbs of gear on our backs.

 

Clouds continued to build, and since we still had a lot of trailess hiking ahead of us, we decided to bolt. We planned to decend to Alta Meadow where we would meet up with a trail to Wolverton. Dense fog obscured our visibility at times but never got bad enough to take us off course. We eventually made it down through the clouds and into Alta Meadow.

 

View of a granite dome from Alta Meadow.

 

More photos of Alta Meadow. The fog would accompany us for most of the final days hike.

 

One last shot of Alta Meadow and then it was a long 7 miles of hiking back to the parking lot. We got back to the truck around 1630 and headed down the mountain for some dinner with the Grandparents, and then back to San Diego later that night.

 

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