May 2, 2019
The Kings Canyon High Basin Route
This was put together by Andrew Skurka in 2015.
He calls it the finest route in the High Sierra,
but what else could he say?
He also wants to sell you a guidebook for $25, which I find somewhat annoying,
especially since he does not seem to describe the route in even sketchy detail online.
It is all about making money.
Contrast this with the nicely written and illustrated (and most importantly, freely given)
description of the Southern Sierra High Route, and you have to ask some questions.
The route is 124 miles in length. It begins and ends west side, which is of no benefit to me.
I have no intention of hiking it "as-is" anyway, so that is neither here nor there.
Here is a nutshell description, north to south.
- Begin at Roads End.
- Hike north via Grouse Lake and Glacier Valley to Simpson Meadow.
- Up the Enchanted Gorge to Ionian Basin, Black Giant Pass to the JMT.
- JMT south through LeConte Canyon and up Palisade Creek.
- head south through Dumbell basin (Cataract creek?) and Lakes basin, then over Cartridge Pass.
- continue south through Arrow basin to Woods Creek.
- south to Gardiner basin, then the old trail to Charlotte Lake and the JMT.
- Bubbs Creek to East Creek and over Longley Pass and Talus Pass to Colby Lake.
- Down to Cloud Canyon, over Copper Mine Pass and Elizabeth Pass.
- continue west to exit at Lodgepole.
So there is a rough outline.
Plenty of ideas here for "segment hikes".
There are trip reports online that could be "mined" for additional information.
Have any comments? Questions?
Drop me a line!
Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org