68 miles hike at Ansel Adams Wilderness - Day 2
Additional days Blog Posts:
Day 2:
Start: Alger Lakes, Ansel
Adams Wilderness
End: Ediza Lake, Ansel Adams Wilderness
Statistics: 17 miles, +3280ft
/ -4600ft
We start our
day around 6:30 am, this is the perfect time to take sunrise pictures because
usually there is no wind at the morning hours and the lake reflection is
perfect.
From Alger Lakes we went south, crossed the Gem Pass (where we can see the smoke in the lower valleys), and headed down to the large Gem Lake.
At
the lake we took the Clark Lakes trail that is climbing to Agnew Pass near a
small unnames lake that is located right at the mountain pass, 7.3 miles from
our starting point.
From the pas
we can see the high Mammoth Mountain, the lower section of Middle Fork San Joaquin
River valley and far away at the south, partly covered with smoke, the Devils
Postpile National Monument area.
The mountain
wind did not clear the smoke from the valley below so we decided not to go all
the way down the river to the National Park section (we visit this park in the
past), but rather to explore another section of the wilderness.
We start ascending into the deep creek of Middle Fork San Joaquin River and took the River North trail. After hiking 4.5 miles down into the valley alongside the river gorge we reach the trail junction that is climbing west to Shadow Lake.
At our way up
we encounter a ranger that ask for our wilderness hiking permits and gave us
again the wilderness “do and do not do” + recommendations where to find a good
campsite at our destination. It looks like that a lot of campsites along this
hike section were closed for vegetation conservation and restoration.
After 1 mile of
steep climbing, we reach Shadow Lake.
From here
additional 4 mils on Shadow Creek Trail brought us to the amazing valley of
Ediza Lake.
The relatively
large Ediza Lake is nested below amazing mountain peaks, Mount Ritter (13,140ft)
and Banker Peak (12,945ft).
At this popular lake there were several other hikes that plan to spend the night here, we found available campsite location at the far side of the lake and got organized for the night.
It was still relatively early (6:30pm) and I went to explore the
area, found a nice small waterfall, and played with some long exposures' pictures.
Additional Pictures from the same day:
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