Ediza - Thousand Island Lake Loop – June 30 - July 4

Over the Independence Day holiday, I had plans to do a leisurely loop and hit most of the famous lakes in the Ansel Adams Wilderness with my friend Holly – Ediza Lake, Nydiver Lakes, Garnet and Thousand Island – but due to an unfortunate knee injury she exacerbated a few days before, this ended up being a solo trip. On the eve of my intended start date, I had major misgivings about even following through with this trip. You see, I had already visited every lake on my planning route, some of them multiple times even. The main intention was to do some astrophotography (a set of skills of which I’m woefully lacking) and show a hiking friend some new sights. I ended up going through with the trip and it ended up being somewhat mediocre due to a heat wave and horrendous mosquitoes but I did get to hone some photography techniques which is always nice.

I arrived in Mammoth Lakes on the evening of June 29 to very smokey skies due to distant wildfires. Not ideal, but the forecast suggested the worst of the smoke would be gone by the next day so I decided to push on with the trip.

Day 1: Agnew Meadows to Ediza Lake

The Reds Meadow Road is under construction for the next several years to improve safety on the descent to Agnew Meadows. This meant that the road was completely closed to the public Monday-Thursday and only open Friday-Sunday plus holidays this year. I drove to Agnew Meadows on Sunday morning and would not be able to physically drive my car back out to Mammoth until July 3 at the earliest.

I followed the trail to the junction with Shadow Creek before making my way towards Shadow Lake and Ediza Lake. This trail is normally one of the most popular in the area but due to the road closures I saw almost no one. It felt like I was the only one camped at Ediza Lake that night, eerie almost. Since camping is prohibited along the south and west sides of the lake, I had to camp much higher up above the lake in one of the meadows. I woke up around midnight and hiked back down to Ediza Lake to take some photos of the Milky Way. At this point, I didn’t know how to stack photos to reduce noise nor did I have the foresight take a low noise photo during blue hour to preserve details in the foreground.

Paltry attempt at astrophotography at Ediza Lake.

Day 2: Ediza Lake to Nydiver Lakes

I took some more sunrise photos at Ediza Lake the next morning and then slowly packed up camp. I was only planning to hike up to Nydiver Lakes – a place I’ve been to multiple times before. The route I took roughly follows the outflow from the Ritter Glacier up to the base of Ritter Peak before veering eastward towards the highest of the Nydiver Lakes. It was still early in the season so the trickiest part for me was finding a place to cross the raging creek. The terrain was otherwise open forest and grassy slopes with an intermittent bootpath.

I ended up arriving at camp around 11 AM. My least favorite part about summer backpacking is the intense heat and total lack of shade (usually) that means any sort of napping is impossible to do comfortably during the day. I lounged underneath some of the trees in my perfect campsite before the sun set a little bit and I could nap in the tent. I was able to get a full night of sleep on this day since the position of Nydiver Lakes was a bit awkward to get any sort of Milky Way photos with an interesting foreground.

Day 3: Nydiver Lakes to Garnet Lake

I took some sunrise photos from the middle lake before going back to sleep for a bit. I knew I should probably get an early start since the next several days were forecast to be exceptionally hot, but my sleep deficit got the best of me and I slept in until 8 AM. I followed the well-worn bootpath from the lowest lake back down to the Shadow Creek trail before turning off towards Garnet Lake. This was where the heat got to be a bit intense and the mosquitoes were absolutely atrocious.

I made it to Garnet Lake by 11 AM and snagged the lone legal campsite on the south side of the lake. My plan was to take some Milky Way shots by the outlet of Garnet Lake (about half a mile from my camp), which necessitated waking up at 2 AM. Unfortunately, due to poor technique, none of my shots turned out all that great but I did learn some valuable photography lessons on this trip and feel like all of my subsequent trips to the Sierra this summer were much more fruitful.

Day 4: Garnet Lake to Island Pass

I woke up early on the penultimate day and was hiking shortly after I took my photos at sunrise. I was protected from the sun on the south-facing slopes in the morning, and by the time it was warming up I was already at Thousand Island Lake. Out of all my trips in the Sierra and Cascades, I think this one might take the cake for Worst. Mosquitoes. Ever. They were unbearable at Thousand Island Lake and I had to stop on my way up to Island Pass to put on bug spray (something I never do). The only respite from the bugs came from the extremely high winds at Island Pass. I was even able to nap out in the open without getting any bites.

From what I could tell, no one else camped at Island Pass while I was there. Most of the JMT thru-hikers opted for the more popular lake instead. I stayed up late to take some photos of the Milky Way over the tarns and Banner Peak. These turned out much nicer for some reason despite my technique being similarly poor to the ones taken earlier on this trip.

I’ve camped at Island Pass before and knew sunrise would be excellent for photography opportunities, but the hottest temperatures yet were forecast for the next day and the crowds and traffic on the way home were likely to be terrible (it was Independence Day), so I decided to wake up well before sunrise and get a very early start.

Day 5: Island Pass to Agnew Meadows

I woke up around 4 AM and ate a quick breakfast while breaking down camp. I was on the trail shortly after 5 AM and at the High Trail/River Trail turnoff at sunrise. I hiked at a rapid (for me) pace of 3.5 mph and opted to take to the River Trail for more shade. I managed to make it down to the trailhead in three hours, just as the throngs of holiday weekend backpackers were beginning their hikes.

This was definitely a great relaxing trip that helped me reset from the stress of work. I learned a lot of photography on the fly and was very proud of the photos I took on subsequent hikes this year. I’m not totally sure this was one of my favorite trips since I had already been to every location on the itinerary, but there’s nothing wrong with a chill repeat trip from time to time!

—Justin