| Big Pine Lakes July 20-22, 2008 Day 2, Third Lake to Summit and beyond |
| Morning alpenglow on Temple Crag 12,976' |
The last light of day on an unnamed mountain reflected in Summit Lake Click here for photos from our last day - Summit Lake back to the TH Back to Day 1 Back to Backpacking Back to Tarol's Homepage |
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| Morning alpenglow on Mt. Robinson 12,967' & Two Eagle Peak 12,966' |
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| The trail switchbacks above 3rd Lake on its way to 4th and 5th |
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| Two Eagle Peak rising into the clouds above 5th Lake elevation 10,787' |
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| Mt. Robinson as reflected in 5th Lake |
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| Beautiful! After visiting 5th Lake we cross-countried back over to 4th Lake then hiked up to Summit Lake elevation 10,900' |
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| We decided to set up camp at peaceful Summit Lake then we set off to hike to 6th and 7th Lakes. On the map it looked like we could contour over rather than drop down via the trail and then have to hike right up again. This ended up being easier said than done! |
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| Yeah, sure, whose bright idea was this anyway! There's Rod ahead of me talus hopping, at least we had the foresight to drop our packs before trying this :p The aptly named Cloudripper Peak 13,525' is in the background |
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| Gnarly old dead tree on the ridge above 6th Lake, this was the highest point we hiked to on the trip, 11,250' or so |
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| 6th Lake and Mt. Robinson I stayed on the ridge while Rod hiked down to 6th and over to 7th Lake where he saw lots of tadpoles |
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| Can you see 7th Lake tucked in up there? Picture Puzzle is the mountain up the canyon on the left |
| Rod came back and we hiked back over to Summit Lake, staying below the talus this time! |
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| We saw heather and lots of other high elevation wildflowers in the meadows between 6th and Summit Lakes including Shooting Stars, Elephant Heads, Alpine Paintbrush, and Labrador Tea. |
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| Our camp at Summit |
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| The views from the ridge above Summit Lake are the best! You can see most of Palisade Glacier cradled in the high peaks behind us. From left to right are Temple Crag, Mt. Gayley 13,510', Mt. Sill 14,153', Polemonium Peak 14,080', North Palisade 14,242', and Thunderbolt 14,003' |
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| Look at those crazy skinny little rock pinnacles on North Palisade, this part of the mountains is so incredibly jagged and rugged! |