Happy Birthday, Carol! These flowers are for you today.
Hiking Mineral King – Farewell Gap
Two days after Trail Guy went to Farewell Gap via a loop, we returned together with our new best hiking buddy Jessica. The point of the hike was to see Sky Pilot, an elusive high-elevation flower that we’ve never seen anywhere except Farewell Gap (not that we go anywhere outside of Mineral King. . .) […]
Hiking Mineral King – Peculiar Sights
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MELISSA!! When I hike, I think. When I think, I ALWAYS have questions. Here are his photos from inside the tunnel: About a week later, the tunnel looked like this. He walked in it a ways, and then climbed out onto the pinkish algae-clad snow. The more he rubbed and tried to […]
Hiking Mineral King – A Loop
Trail Guy prefers to loop hikes to up-and-backs on the same trail. While I was reuniting with Redwood High School Class of ’77, he was making a loop from White Chief over to the Farewell Canyon and up into Farewell Gap. Here are his photos.
Hiking Mineral King – Franklin Creek
Because of the high water this year, we haven’t gone to all of our normal places. Franklin Creek has been a little scary, although by the time you read this post, it probably won’t be. Two weeks ago we took a reconnaissance walk to see if the creek was crossable. We were joined by special […]
Hiking Mineral King – Empire Area
To get to the area of the Empire Mines, it is best to leave early in the morning. The lower part of the Sawtooth/Timber Gap trail is HOT and STEEP; with its exposure, morning is the only sensible time to walk it. We met our friends at 8:30 on the bridge, which is early in […]
Hiking Mineral King – The Nature Trail
This hardly qualifies as hiking – a one mile walk up a trail from Cold Springs Campground in Mineral King. There is always a great variety of wildflowers, and there are aspen trees, a little area of conifers, views of Sawtooth Peak, and a desert-ish area of sage, along with plenty of places to get […]
Hiking Mineral King – Three Falls Below the Gate
About 1-1/2 miles below the end of the Mineral King Road, you can see a roaring section of falls over the edge, waaay down there. Trail Guy and I went exploring, following a friend’s vague instructions: “I just drop off those rocks below my cabin”. Oh yeah? I followed Trail Guy and trusted him to […]
Hiking Mineral King – Timber Gap
I wussed out. Trail Guy asked if I was okay, and I responded, “a little light-headed”. I hate that. We went as far as the wildflowers. You saw them last Friday, but here they are again, because they were spectacular. (I know I already used that word – it fits.)
Week of Wildflowers – Everything!
Today concludes the Week of Wildflowers in Mineral King. Sure, there are many I haven’t photographed, different ones along the road, ones that appeared earlier in the summer, ones that will appear later. This week has been about flowers that I saw and photographed in the last two weeks. And for the final post of […]