SEKI 2025

 7/22 - 8/1/25

Inyo NF and Sequoia NP

Trailhead: Cottonwood Pass

Camera: Sony A7CR and Tamron 28 - 200 lens

I had big plans to see a part of SEKI that I had not seen before. It was going to involve a lot of elevation gains and a lot of off-trail travel. Then my son and I did a 5 night trip in the Smokies and I realized that I had let my training slip (I had broke my shoulder in March and that slowed me down a lot) and there was no way I'd be able to do what I had planned. So, I pivoted to an area I had seen before with the idea of seeing some past favorites as well options for some new spots. 

The weather forecast looks amazing for the next week.

Caltopo says about 75 miles and 16000' for the trip

Day 0: Up early to get to the airport, fly to Vegas, get rental and then drive to Lone Pine with a lunch stop in Pahrump. I got Subway in Lone Pine and drove up the road to Horseshoe Meadows. It was early enough that I could have started hiking, but I have found that spending a night at 10,000' means that I don't have any altitude problems. So I planned on hanging out in the trailhead campground and then going to bed early. I was the only one there so I picked a site off to the side and then wandered around a bit. Most of the sites were occupied by dinner time, but everyone was quiet so going to bed early was not a problem.

Cottonwood Lakes Backpacker Campground

Day 1 - Cottonwood Pass Trailhead to Lower Soldier Lake (10.5 miles & 1986' up & 1130' down)

Up early and drive over to the Cottonwood Pass Trailhead, might as well save a 1/2 mile of walking while my pack is full. No surprise, 10 days of food is a lot, the theme song running through my head for the first couple days was "Uncle John's Band" by the Grateful Dead

"Well the first days are the hardest days

Don't you worry anymore" 

Uncle John's Band (Grateful Dead)

Intersection with the PCT

Chicken Spring Lake

Big Whitney Meadow looks surprisingly green. I need to get down there someday.

Siberian Outpost

Lower Soldier Lake

First Campsite (Lower Soldier Lake)

Day 2 - Lower Soldier Lake to Crabtree Meadows (11 miles & 1820' up & 2275' down)

Woke up not feeling great, my belly was off, which made it hard to eat. I ate breakfast, but was feeling crappy most of the day. A little weird since I felt great yesterday. 

Down Rock Creek

Rock Creek was very pretty and down hill so it was easy hiking to the PCT. 

PCT over Guyot Pass was not great. I had forgotten how limited the views are along here. Not bad hiking, but not the High Sierra.

Some views looking west

Crabtree Meadows was very pretty. I set up camp west of the PCT. It was very windy and I had a hard time finding a level campsite. Still not feeling great and just setting up my tent was a problem. I was wishing for a free-standing tent at one point. Finally got set up and wandered around a bit, before dinner and bed. 

Second Campsite (Crabtree Meadows)

Day 3 - Crabtree Meadows to a Tarn between JMT and Upper Kern (10.5 miles & 2659' up & 1776' down)

My stomach was still bothering me, this was probably one of the days that I skipped my oatmeal and just had a bar for breakfast. I also wasn't eating much of the snacks for lunch which started to catch up with me by early afternoon. I got to Wright Creek and considered heading up to the lakes which were on my want to see list, but it just seemed hard to go off trail so I kept heading north on the PCT. In retrospect, I probably should have detoured up Wright Creek and made it a shorter day.

I talked to a couple JMTers heading north to Forester, did not see anyone else until one man on Bighorn Plateau on Day 6 (a couple days later).

Views getting better to the west. I had recently read a trip report about crossing Red Spur, so I spent a lot of time taking photos and just thinking about getting over it.

Kawaehs poking up behind Red Spur

Kaweahs

Last photo of Red Spur and the Kaweahs

Bighorn Plateau was nice. The last time I came across it was hailing. Today I had time to enjoy the views.

The tarn is shockingly large for its location

Hikers on the JMT

Rockwell Pass from the JMT

I heard a weird noise and looked up to see this plane. Pretty sure some rules were being broken given how low it was.

I headed towards the Kern with the idea that I would camp in between the JMT and the Kern if I was tired or would maybe make it all the way to the Kern. Lack of food meant that I was moving slowly and it became obvious that I wanted to stop early. I found an awesome site near a lake off the cutoff trail. 

As I was approaching camp I saw this coyote across the lake, only had a chance for a couple meh photos before it disappeared in the rocks. This is a 200mm lens and then heavily cropped.

The lake was very pretty with great views of the Great Western Divide in the distance.

This was the second pika that posed for me this summer. Never managed to get a photo before.

I identified a nice flat rock near my campsite that stuck out in the lake. I was hoping to get some stars and reflections. Somewhat amazed that I managed to both me and my camera dry as I moved around in the dark.

I wish I had a wider lens, but I was glad to not be carrying any extra weight.

Third Campsite (lake between Kern River and JMT)

Day 4 - Lake to Upper Kern (Casper Lake) (4.2 miles & 880' up & 1159' down + some wandering)

My belly is still not great. And it turns out that Caltopo had not downloaded all the maps, so I was going on memory on getting to Casper Lake. I ended up taking a bad route once I got off the Lake South America trail that led to tedious scrambling and I was happy to finally make it to the lake. I wandered around basin for a couple hours and decided that I had no energy to make to climb to Harrison Pass. Somewhat disappointed because I had wanted to check out the view from the pass, but just lacking energy, the days and not wanting to eat were catching up to me. The bugs at dinner helped me decide to head to Milestone the next morning vs stay another night and explore, not the best/rational decision making. But I was by myself so I could do what ever I wanted.

Lake in the morning is still pretty. 

I circumnavigated the lake and took my time breaking camp since I wasn't going very far.

Milestone Peak

Casper Lake from near camp

Wandering around in the basin west of the lake

Looking east with Whitney in the distance

Sunset is coming, to tired to think about stars, besides I had got star photos from this location the last time I was here. So, climb into bed to read and fall asleep.

Fourth Campsite (Casper Lake)

Day 5 - Casper Lake to Milestone Basin (2.5 miles & 658' up & 510' down + wandering)

I had originally thought about climbing up to one of Lucy's or Millies's Foot Passes, but I was still feeling off and was very tired. I was very glad that my pack was getting lighter even if I wasn't eating as much as I normally would. Let's make it a short day and head to Milestone Basin.

I took the direct route down the Kern and then the user trail up into the basin. I had forgot how big Milestone Basin is. 

Remains of the old trail, I wonder when this was abandoned?

Wasn't expecting to see this when I looked down, seems like it would be hard to get a horse up here, but I don't know anything about horses.

I spent some time wandering around higher up in the basin after I set up camp, lots of water and convoluted terrain, very fun to wander through without a pack.

Crescent moon in the west.

I did not have a very good angle for Milky Way photos, so I just set my camera on a rock near my tent for a couple of shots and then went to bed.

Fifth Campsite (Milestone Basin)

In retrospect, I should have stayed another night and did some more wandering and relaxing, but the bugs were annoying at dusk. So, let's slowly make our way back to the trailhead.

Day 6 - Milestone Basin to Wright Creek Meadow (7.75 miles & 1648' up & 1783' down)

It felt like a lot of work to get back to the JMT. At one point I stopped and zoned out watching tadpoles in a tarn along the cutoff trail. It was obvious that I had not been eating enough and was basically on fumes. Thankfully, there were no hard decisions to make today.

Marmot near the JMT

Up towards the Bighorn Plateau

There was a group of marmots on the plateau which surprised me because I've only seen them near rocks. Here they seemed to have burrowed into the dirt.

I thought about camping on the plateau, but it was really early to be stopping, so I continued on.

First people I've seen in a couple of days.

Wright Creek near the JMT

I setup camp in a stand of trees where the bugs weren't bad and there were great views to the south.

I wandered around for a bit after dinner watching the light change.

Sixth Campsite (Wright Creek)

Day 7 - Wright Creek Meadow to Crabtree Lakes (7.8 miles & 1693' up & 1389' down)

Today was a very short day, I knew I would not make it over Crabtree pass and didn't want to camp in the rocks below the pass so I planned on stopping at first lake

Crabtree Meadow

I setup camp and had lots of reading time in the shade. I even managed to catch a fish in my water bag

A little bit of wandering after dinner.

I saw this hawk try to take a rodent of some sort, but he missed and flew into a tree and then posed for me. 

A guy (Chris from Oakland) came through and said he was going to camp nearby and was going over the pass tomorrow. I figured I'd never see him again, but he was out with a camera at sunset like me and we ended up chatting for a bit. Neither one of us were planning on an early start so maybe we will see each other in the morning.

By this point, I was mostly feeling better belly wise, but I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I was suffocating. I actually got out of the tent for 5 or 10 minutes so I could breath and get my heart to stop racing. Kind of weird, never had something like this happen and I've been above 10000 feet for the last week. Eventually, everything calmed down and I crawled back into be and went back to sleep.

Seventh Campsite (Crabtree Lakes)

Day 8 - Crabtree Lakes to Miter Basin (6.35 miles & 1858' up & 1739' down)

As I was putting my pack on in the morning, I looked up and Chris was just walking by. We ended up hiking together for the rest of the day. 

At the middle lake, we ran into a guy who had hiked over Cottonwood Pass and then all the way to Crabtree Meadows on a long first day. And then hiked up to the lake early in the morning to fish. He said he had passed through the basin earlier in the summer and there were really big fish and he was going to get a couple. That's him on the peninsula as we hiked away from the lake. 

Heading into the rocks below the upper lake

Upper Crabtree Lake

Looking up at Crabtree Pass, hard to believe, but it is a very easy pass, just need to go 500 feet up

Sky Pilots just below the pass

Looking down from the pass at the highest Crabtree Lake. The middle lake is in the distance.

Sky Blue Lake

And from a different angle. I said goodbye to Chris since I wanted to be a little lower in Miter Basin so I could potentially hike out tomorrow. He was a great hiking partner for the day. 

Campsite in the trees

The moon is getting bigger

Eighth Campsite (Miter Basin)

Day 9 - Miter Basin to Upper Soldier Lake to New Army Pass to Trailhead (14 miles & 2489' up & 3717' down)

Woke up to a beautiful day, perfect for hiking. 

It took a while for the sun to rise above the ridge

Here it comes

Looking down at the notch that heads towards the Soldier Lakes

Upper Soldier Lake, I ran into a young couple (from LA?) who were set up for a couple days and planning on some dayhikes and just hanging out. Eventually, I said goodbye and headed up the user trail towards Mt Langley.

Upper Soldier Lake 

As I was heading up the trail, I paused to catch my breath and I looked down and saw a couple sheep. They must have come out of the rocks as I climbed up. They knew I was there, but slowly worked their way into the grass. This is 200mm and heavily cropped.

Looking down on Upper Soldier Lake

Looking east into the Cottonwood Lakes basin near New Army Pass

Down in the basin looking west. I would have found a place to camp, but Long Lake was crawling with people and I did not feel like wandering around to find a secluded site. I decided that I would just make it a long day and head to the trailhead and then find a hotel in Lone Pine and get pizza and beer.

Meadow along the South Fork, very buggy

I got to the car, found a hotel and beer and ordered pizza from California Pizza Kitchen, ended up being a terrible pizza. I should have just ate backpacking food instead. But, the beer was good and the shower felt great. 

Day 10 - I had extra time to get to Vegas since I had planned on coming off the trail today and getting a shower at the Whitney Hostel. Instead, I checked out the books in the Eastern Sierra Visitor Center and then headed towards Death Valley. I had never checked out the Visitor Center before and then I took the longer drive through Badwater Basin since I had time. 

Lots of photos just sticking my camera out the window. The car thermometer said it was 117 degrees.

Got out at Badwater for a very short walk. 

Still getting bigger

I'd like to spend some time in Death Valley when it is cooler. And then off to Vegas and a flight home.

I got lucky with weather on this trip, but unlucky with some stomach issues. Chris mentioned that he ended up with COVID on a backpacking trip a couple years ago and that got me wondering if I got something on the plane that took a couple of days show effects. No idea, but this trip would have been a lot better if I had been feeling better. Oh well, still a good trip even with the dumb decisions I made along the way.