Sequoia Park: Alta Peak Trail Day Hike

Dale Matson

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Hike Route

I hiked to Pear Lake a couple of times on the Lakes Trail out of Wolverton. http://midsierramusing.blogspot.com/2014/08/pear-lake-as-day-hike.html

The trail to Alta Peak begins at the same place and the two trails depart from one another 1.8 miles from the trailhead. You can find the entire hike to Alta Peak here: http://midsierramusing.blogspot.com/2014/08/day-hike-to-alta-peak.html

This day I hiked about 6 hours on the trail toward Alta Peak and covered about 10.5 miles round trip with about 2,000’ of gain outbound. Plan on a dry hike, few bugs, and a good trail with a civilized grade.

The junctions were well marked with poor air quality and few other hikers. For those who want a shorter hike ending with an unobstructed view, I recommend they go as far as Panther Gap, which is about 3 miles from the trailhead and about 1,200’ of climb. Until that point, the trail will be in the trees. From there one can see the Great Western Divide, which separates the Kings, Kaweah and Kern River drainages. About a mile further on the Alta Peak Trail there is a spur trail near Mehrten Meadow that joins the High Sierra Trail that crosses the divide at the Kaweah Gap. It later joins the JMT to Mt. Whitney.

I used my Sony A7R2 with the Sony 24-70 2.8 GM lens.

Trail Markings In The Trees For Winter Travel

Still Some Water

Trail Sign Just Below Panther Gap

Great Western Divide

Mehrten Meadow Campsites Available Here

There Are Campsites Available At Alta Meadow

Is This Tharp Rock From Below?

Or Is This Tharp Rock From Below?

Clear Zoom Of 70mm (140mm digital zoom)

Black Kaweah Far Left

Dale Matson

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Convict Lake

Our original intent was to reach Lakes Mildred and Dorothy on a day hike. One would think that by the end of August we could cross the confluence of Convict Creek and the outlet of Genevieve Lake. As it turned out, we turned back at the sight of such a turbulent cascade. We sat there for lunch and I couldn’t help thinking how easy the crossing would have been if the washed out footbridge were still there. It wasn’t and we were not young and spry enough to risk crossing. We only had daypacks too. I can’t even imagine risking the crossing with a heavy pack. I sent a trail “conditions” e-mail to the folks at the White Mountain Ranger Station in Bishop when I got back home with an attached photo of the crossing. There are YouTube videos posted on the crossing dangers at the beginning of August.

Since this was the case I will report on our hike beginning at the day use area on the south side of Convict Lake. Every posting I have read states the hike to Mildred Lake is five miles one way and the hike to Dorothy Lake is 6 miles one way. That is correct BUT the trailhead is at the northeast corner of Convict Lake making it a hike of a mile before you actually get to the trailhead sign no matter where you start from. Additionally for those like us who start where we did, the boardwalk, which crosses Convict Creek at the inlet to Convict Lake, is partially washed away and you will have to ford a portion of the creek. We did have water shoes with us, which we used sooner than we planned but not where we planned later on.

Our trip was 9.5 miles round trip with about 2,000’ of altitude gain overall. We were out for about 7.5 hours with a start temperature of 44 degrees. Most of the climb is exposed and the return was hot. We experienced very few mosquitos. The last water before the climb is at the lake with the creek far below most of the climb. The best access to water after that is by the washed out bridge.

We met four young folks with backpacks on the way up as we were headed down. They planned on using a rope. I have no idea how they could make use of the rope but hope they crossed safely.

It was still a good day of exercise with beautiful color in the canyon. Mt. Morrison was especially colorful. We explored another route along the Laurel Creek Trail. The first mile in my 4X4 truck was enough exploration to make me think twice about this option. Maybe mid October will be better with less water in the creeks.