High Sierra Trip June 2013
I've read a lot of reports on this area and three of us (two vehicles) decided to check it out. What a beautiful place this truly is and the pictures don't do it justice.
Our trip was Friday June 21st - June 24th. We decided to go up from Bishop instead of Big Pine. The Big Pine route is more difficult and since we were towing a street trailer we choose the easier way. Even then we managed to tip the trailer on it's side twice on the trail into Funnel Lake. Mainly because we had the trailer tire pressure too high and a full gas can mounted high on the front of the trailer. No worse for the wear. We lowered the tire pressure and used the gas and had no trouble heading getting out on Monday.
Enjoy the report and pictures.
Here is a picture of the trail into Coyote Flats
Spring flowers covering Coyote Flats
5 deer relaxing under a tree.
The trail leading into and out of Funnel Lake. There are two routes into the lake, a north and south, we choose the north route.
Campsite.
View of campsite from across Funnel Lake.
GPS with campsite altitude: 10,401 feet.
Funnel Lake.
Saturday morning on Funnel Lake.
Saturday dinner complements of Funnel Lake. 1 brown and 2 rainbow trout.
Sunday morning we hiked over to Rocky Bottom lake to check it out. We caught one rainbow trout and released it for someone else to catch.
After Rocky Bottom Lake we decided to drive over to Bracket Prospect which was an old mine. The route took us passed a closed mine (we did not stop) and up to Bracket Prospect located at about 11,000 feet. We did not make it to Bracket, we got pretty close, the trail became loose shale and off-camber and no one wanted to get out and hike at 11,000 feet the rest of the way to check it out. We did stop at a turnout/campground that overlooked both Rocky Bottom and Funnel Lakes 1,000 feet below. The Views were spectacular.
The trail took us along a stream with a couple of water crossings.
We are at 11,000 feet looking east. Below but out of camera view is Funnel and Rocky Bottom lakes.
Flowers along spring on way back to camp.
According to the map this meadow has 7 springs feeding it.
Eating lunch by the stream.
Sunday night was our last night, the clouds rolled in over the mountains, to the north you could see rain coming down and the sunset was beautiful. Talk about perfect timing, as soon as we doused the fire for the night, the wind came up and blew all night pretty hard. Monday we decided to break camp early and head to Bishop for breakfast.
All packed up and ready to go.
Morning over Coyote Flats.
Saw this bear track at one of the spring crossings on the way out.
These last two pictures are of the switch-backs transversed up and down the mountain. Note the jeep in the second picture.
I want to thank my friend Dave who also contributed his pictures to this report.
Thank you for reading it and I hope you enjoyed the pictures and report.
