Lone Pine is a long drive for us. LONG DRIVE. Like, 7+ hours. But as John Muir once said, “The mountains are calling and I must go,” and this past weekend it was Cottonwood Basin that was calling. The trail to Cottonwood starts from the Horseshoe Meadows area out of Lone Pine.
We took off Thursday night and drove out towards Yosemite. We were hoping to snag a campsite at one of the higher campgrounds near Tioga Pass but everything was full. Even Lee Vining Canyon was packed – we finally found a spot in the Lower Lee Vining campground around 12:30 am in between two RVs. The following morning we hiked Gaylor Peak (trip report) and then headed into the Mono Visitor Center to pick up a permit for Cottonwood Lakes trailhead for Saturday. This was followed by fish tacos at the Whoa Nellie Deli. My first of the season and they were as good as always.
Having had a productive morning (1 peak, 1 permit, and 2 fish tacos), we headed south along 395 and took some time to fish along the way. We were completely unsuccessful at both Rush Creek and Rock Creek. Plus the mosquitoes were out. By evening we had reached Lone Pine and after dinner in town we headed out to camp at Tuttle Creek. It was hot so we enjoyed some cold beer and nighttime photography before heading to bed.
We met up with Sooz, Robin, and Rachel at 7:30 near the trailhead. After dropping our cooler in a bear box, we went back to the Old trail and started off towards Cottonwood Lakes. I was feeling good and hardly noticed the altitude. It helps that the trail climbs gently. Eventually, we reached the junction to Muir Lake and headed towards our intended campsite.
At Muir Lake we set up camp along the ‘riviera’ – the sandy northern shore of the lake. From here we were planning on climbing The Fin, a peak on the ridge behind camp. No one was really feeling up to the sandy slog, however, so we changed our minds and decided to do a tour of the basin instead, hopefully getting up to Cottonwood Lake #6. This ended up being a wise decision – the poofy white clouds ended up turning into a storm and I would not have liked having to turn around if we had been up on that ridge!
We left the guys to fish at the lower lakes and headed up to Lake #6. It was beautiful! No one was up there and we had the place to ourselves. I fished a small lake below #6 and caught a couple golden trout. Lots of fat marmots ran around. We had some fun scrambling around a boulder field on our return hike, and eventually returned to camp as the sky darkened and thunder rumbled. Although it was pretty stormy just to the west of us, we didn’t feel a drop so could focus our energy on battling mosquitoes.
The next morning we awoke to some high clouds so we didn’t stick around. After hiking out (with storms building quickly) we hit Alabama Hills Cafe for an amazing late breakfast/lunch. Then it was back in the car for the long drive home. But totally worth it – it’s an area I wish I got to more often!
Nice post, I especially like the picture “A Difficult Life”. We’re heading around that area this weekend, I’ll make sure to take plenty of repellents, thanks for the heads up! 🙂
Nice pics and report. There were times going over some passes to the north of there a couple of weeks ago that I thought I shouldn’t have been up there. The clouds roll in at about 1PM every day, it seems.
Good call and going back down and enjoying the day.
New one to me, fish tacos???
Huge driving effort, looks a terrific spot.
Calipidder – sounds like a great trip, even though lots of driving involved. Superb photos, too!
Hi Bex, Thanks for the timely report, I’m heading up there in 2 weeks. Spending a couple days fishing, photographing and roaming the area.