Giant Forest to Mineral King June 19-21, 1999

Me on the High Sierra Trail with the Great Western Divide as a backdrop

This was my first serious BP trip.  I went with two fellow rangers, Vera and Lisa Ann.  We started out on the High Sierra Trail from Crescent Meadow in Giant Forest and spent the first night at Bearpaw Meadow.  The second day we hiked down into the Middle Fork Kaweah River Valley, saw a huge blonde black bear, crossed two branches of the Middle Fork Kaweah River, and had lunch in the Redwood Meadow Grove of giant sequoias.  That night we stayed at the Cliff Creek Junction and the next day we hiked up and over Timber Gap into Mineral King.  This was my first taste of the backcountry of Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks and I was hooked!

The first Middle Fork Kaweah River crossing we did had a bridge, here I am posing on it...

The second did not and we had a hard time crossing, it was very slick and cold!  Here are my two BP partners and fellow rangers posing by that second crossing

The third day was by far the hardest, but the sights were beautiful.  Here is a small waterfall off to the right as we neared Timber Gap

Our reward for getting over the gap, a spectacular view of Mineral King Valley

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