Sierra Nevada Adventures - Golden Trout Loop

in #hiking6 years ago (edited)

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Welcome back to California Mountain Adventures!

This next adventure is an awesome backpacking trip in the Golden Trout Wilderness in the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains!

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Coming along on this trip was my mom and my two kiddos (my dogs)! We drove up route 395 and then up 9 Mile Canyon road. We headed up into the mountains passed Kennedy Meadows all the way to the Blackrock trailhead where we began our adventure. The hike started through thick forest and after a few miles it opened up to beautiful Casa Vieja meadow. We made our way around the meadow checking out all the grazing cattle along the way. From there we headed north on the trail to Lost Trout creek, Long Canyon creek, and then Beer Keg meadow where we stopped and took our lunch. From there it was another easy 4 miles to our destination for the day, Redrock Meadows. We got there and scoped it all out and found a perfect spot to setup our first camp.

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Small Meadows along the start of the trail

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Grazing cattle at Casa Vieja Meadow

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Hiking around Casa Vieja

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Crossing Long Canyon Creek

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Break time at Beer Keg Meadow

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Views from the trail

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The rock outcrop known as "Indian Head" which towers over Redrock Meadows

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Old cabin ruins

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Exploring Redrock Meadows

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Redrock creek

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Our first camp

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Cotton candy sunset

Early the next morning, before packing up, we decided to make the short but fun class 3-4 climb up onto the Indian Head! After enjoying the view we headed back down to the meadow and packed up camp. From there we began the steep climb up to Toowa pass. This section was full of huge Red Firs which provided nice shade cover for the climb. Once up on the pass we dropped most our gear minus a small day pack and climbed cross country up above the tree line to the summit of Kern Peak(11,510') the highest point of our trip!!

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Climbing up Indian Head

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Mom standing on Indian Head

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Views from near Toowa pass, with Indian Head in the lower left

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Approaching Kern Peak

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Leaving the trees

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Views from the summit of Kern Peak including ruins from the old fire lookout

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Looking north from Kern Peak, overlooking many of the awesome places we'll be exploring over the next couple days

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Looking East from Kern peak, with Olancha peak towering over Templeton mountain and Templeton meadows, the second largest meadow in the Sierra Nevada

After enjoying all the amazing views from the summit we started our decent back to Toowa pass. We picked up all our gear and headed down the other side of the pass. After a couple steep miles we arrived at Templeton meadows and the South fork of the Kern River. We found a nice spot and got camp setup. Then I was off to explore the meadow to try some trout fishing before dark!

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Descending from the peak

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View of Olancha peak from the north side of Toowa pass

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Arriving at Templeton Meadows

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Templeton mountain sits in the center of the massive Templeton meadow

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Exploring the meadow

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Evening in the meadow

The next day we headed north to Ramshaw meadow. Another huge meadow. Here we turned east and headed along the south side of the meadow. Eventually leaving the South Fork Kern drainage and entering the Golden Trout creek drainage. We dropped into the drainage and pretty quick we arrived at the Malpais volcanic field. We got to Groundhog meadow and then dropped our gear there to make the climb up to the top of Cinder Cone. Which as the name implies is a huge cinder cone caused by volcanic activity in the area.

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Sunrise at Templeton Meadows

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Pup getting a drink at Ramshaw meadow

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Overlooking Ramshaw meadow

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Kern peak from Ramshaw meadow

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Malpais

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Climbing Cinder Cone

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On top of Cinder Cone

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Overlooking Volcano meadow from Cinder Cone

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Mom checking the map while we rest on top, Kern peak towering over us in the background

After a nice break to enjoy the view we headed back down Cinder Cone across the Malpais and back to the trail. We picked up our gear and continued down the trail along the northern edge of Malpais to Little Whitney meadow where we stopped and made camp. Then I headed out for some trout fishing in Golden Trout creek. Golden trout creek is actually quite special. It's the only place where you can find pure native Golden trout. The 3 massive tiers of Volcano falls down on the lower parts of the creek have kept any other trout species from being able to get upstream to interbreed with them. So while they usually aren't very big, it was really special to get to see these beautiful and rare fish.

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Golden Trout Creek

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Little Whitney Meadow

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Little Whitney Meadow

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Little Whitney Meadow

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Native Golden Trout

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Native Golden Trout

The next morning we packed up and headed down the trail through the last of the Malpais volcanic fields, across the natural bridge, and down to Volcano falls. We dropped down off the trail to get some better views of the falls. After checking out all the falls, we continued down into Kern canyon all the way to the bottom at the Kern river. We crossed the river on the bridge there and headed down river passed Kern lake to Little Kern lake where we stopped and setup camp. There was a great spot to camp by the lake and not far from that was a 20ft tall rock at the edge of the lake which was perfect for jumping off into the lake. After doing some swimming I headed out again for some trout fishing around the lake and in the river.

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Views from the upper part of the trail

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Upper Volcano falls

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Middle Volcano falls

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Lower Volcano falls(bottom right)

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Passing a Columnar Basalt outcrop

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Tower Rock

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Crossing the Kern River

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Kern river

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Kern river

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Kern lake

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Camping at Little Kern lake

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Rainbow trout from the river

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Sunset at Little Kern lake

The next day we continued down river, down the Devils Staircase and across Grasshopper flat to the Hole in the Ground junction. There we dropped our packs and made the side trip a couple miles down to check out Hole in the Ground, an equestrian camp by a nice swimming hole in the river. We took a little break there and then headed back up to the junction and picked up our packs. From there we began to climb up away from the river around the southern tip of the Great Western Divide through Willow meadow to Trout meadows. It took us awhile to find a spot to camp there, but we finally found a really nice spot on the southeastern side of the meadow. There are also some small cabins by the meadow that were being used by some equestrians who were letting their beautiful horses graze out in the meadow.

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Kern river by Hole in the Ground

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Looking up Kern Canyon

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Willow meadow

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Trout meadows

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The cabins at Trout meadows

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Horses in the meadow

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Horses in the meadow

The next day we had a pretty easy day. We got up and hit the trail. From the meadow we climbed up over Flatiron ridge and then dropped all the way back down to the Kern river at Kern flats. From there we headed up river to the equestrian camp at Nine Mile creek. We got there early in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day swimming, fishing, and just relaxing by the river. And no equestrians came to use the camp so we had the place all to ourselves!

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The horses in Trout meadow in the morning

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Hiking through big Incense Cedars on Flatiron ridge

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Back at the Kern river

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Hiking up the Kern river

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Equestrian camp on the Kern river by Nine Mile creek

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Camp

In the morning before packing up we decided to spend the morning exploring up the river to the 'Falls of the Kern' where the whole Kern river roars over a 40 foot falls!! We explored all around this really impressive section of the river before heading back. Once back from our morning excursion we packed up camp and headed up Nine Mile creek.

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Overlooking Kern Canyon in the morning

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Bedrock mortars

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Kern river above the falls

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Looking off the Falls of the Kern

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Kern river

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Kern river

Nine Mile creek also had some awesome waterfalls for us. We climbed up passed the 60 foot lower falls, crossed the creek and climbed up a bunch of switchbacks over Soda Flats to the second creek crossing. But before crossing we made another side trip down stream to the upper falls which dramatically drops 200 feet into a deep gorge! After taking a break to enjoy the falls we continued up the trail to Jordan Hot Springs. We found a spot by the springs to setup our final camp of the trip. We explored the meadows and checked out all the cool old cabins and stuff from the old resort that used to exist at Jordan Hot springs. Then we spent the rest of the day soaking in the hot springs talking about what an awesome trip this was!

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Lower Nine Mile Falls

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Soda flats

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Crossing Nine Mile creek

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Upper Nine Mile falls

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Approaching Jordan Hot springs

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Old Cabins at Jordan Hot springs

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Old Cabins at Jordan Hot springs

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Old Cabins at Jordan Hot springs

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Old Cabins at Jordan Hot springs

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Meadows around Jordan Hot springs

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Hot springs

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Hot springs

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Hot tub

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Our final camp of the trip

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Sunset glow above the hot tub

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Senset from the hot tub

This was our final day of the trip. Bittersweet as expected. We packed up our gear and headed up Nine Mile creek, crossing multiple times before arriving back at Casa Vieja meadows! No cows there this time. From there it was just a few more miles back out to the Blackrock trailhead where we began this trip a week earlier!

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Hiking up Nine Mile creek

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Some interesting fungi

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Back at Casa Vieja Meadows

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*All photos by @derekrichardson

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Hiya, just swinging by to let you know you're being featured in today's Travel Digest #315. Please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider upvoting the Travel Digest if you like what we're doing.

Thanks @steemitworldmap! I'll go check it out right now and give it a resteem. You know I already upvote EVERY travel digest. lol. I love you guys!

We are SO proud to have you as a member of our
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That was a great trip! one of my favorites and we didn't get snowed on, ha ha.
Looking forward to many more fabulous back country trips with you, my son. Age is only a number it how you take care of the body that maters. I'm still hiking with strong hiker friends 10-15 years older then me.

Wow, that's California?? Amazingly beautiful.... thank you for sharing.

Yep! A lot of people think California is all just like Hollywood, but the Sierra Nevada is a whole other world!

This trip looks incredible! Great pictures... Hot springs at the end, a great way to soak it all out too. Doggies also help carry a few things :)

Thanks! Ya, when I planned the trip I knew the hot springs would be a perfect way to end the trip. Soak our muscles after all the hiking. And the doggies had a blast!

WHAT a great hike!
I especially loved the old cabin at Jordan Hot springs! That would be a cool place to spend a weekend off-grid.

Thanks @goldendawne! It was a great one. All the old cabins and artifacts from the old resort at Jordan was so dang cool. I could just imagine how cool it must have been 100 years ago when it was in full swing.
http://www.owensvalleyhistory.com/sierra_names2/jordan_hot_springs_history.pdf

Hi derekrichardson,

This post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Have a great day :)

Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.

Whoohoo! Winner winner trout for dinner! lol. Thanks @curie. Thats to cool!

Great adventure indeed!
Lots of beautiful views.
Thanks for sharing pictures!

Was that a 1 day hike? I guess I didn't read fully the text and got excited scrolling down with those beautiful photos. lol

Thanks @ronel! Haha, nah. It was a 7 day trip. Glad you enjoyed the photos!

Really enjoyed watching the photos. Much more in the actual site definitely.
I was actually suppose to say that was a week hike but I just leave my comment and ignore editing it lol
Anyways, hoping to see more photos on your next adventure.
See yah!

What an amazing trip! Epic photography. The way you scale those peaks makes you kind of a John Muir figure.

Thanks @creationofcare! I had a buddy who used to call me "Derek Ansel Muir" mixing my name with Ansel Adams and John Muir. lol. Both of them were really amazing people, but actually Norman Clyde has always been my favorite Sierra Nevada legend. The man was just incredible.

Wow, so many stunning pictures! Looks like you had a very interesting trip to say the least! That's a great amount of effort you must've put into writing this post.

Really like the landscapes, I really don't see anything like it where I live.

Thanks @daan! There was tons of interesting stuff to see on this trip. Glad you enjoyed the photos!