Friday, October 11
We woke up to a very comfortable temperatures at these higher elevations. Our first hike today is the Crystal Lake Trail.
The trail is out and back with the first half almost all uphill. As we climb up, we have beautiful views of the nearby lake George.
The switchbacks continue up towards the top of the mountain.
We crest a saddle and are rewarded with the beautiful Crystal Lake.
The lake is beautiful, surrounded by tall mountains. We found a spot with large granite rocks, sloping to the water and took some pictures as we waited for the rest of our group to arrive.
Our entire group made it to the lake and we took a group shot with gorgeous backgrounds.
I took a side trip with Eric and Valorie. We wanted to go to the base of the sharp pyramid shaped peak towering over the lake.
As we headed up towards the base, we passed some incredible, deep white granite boulders. At first, they looked like large chunks of snow.
We continued up to a large field created from rock which has fallen off of the cliff face. We had more beautiful views of Crystal Lake now below us.
After taking in some more spectacular views we scrambled down the mountain side cross country back to the lake side.
After getting more lake pictures from a different view, we headed back to the start of the trail
The difference between the white granite shown earlier and this darker rock is clearly contrasting.
We arrived back at the trailhead where we started. We covered 3.7 miles with an elevation gain of 1020 feet. After a quick lunch, we took a short five minute drive to a second trailhead with a goal of reaching Barney Lake.
We entered the John Muir wilderness and begin another uphill hike.
We soon passed by arrowhead Lake and continued up along granite paths crossing small trail side streams.
The mountain and valley views are a beautiful as we continue up.
A short time later, we passed by skeleton Lake, but do not stop for pictures or admiration, we will do that on the way back, but after a little more climbing, we crest the pass and have a beautiful view of Barney Lake.
After a quick snack, we turn around and head back, stopping at an overlook of skeleton lake.
We continue back down to Lakeside and stop for some pictures on a sandy lake beach
As we passed a peaceful mountain stream, I paused to get a shadow picture. The stream is just above my shadow.
We arrived back at the cars having hike, an additional 5.74 miles with 1214 more feet of elevation. God’s creation is beautiful. We returned to our condos, cleaned up, and took a short drive to the Minaret Vista for a beautiful sunset viewing.
