Snowshoeing Little Lakes Valley Trail

Hi Blog!

As we mentioned in yesterday's blog, we ran into some bad weather on the way out of the White Mountains after visiting the bristlecone pine trees. However, when we woke up this morning, we were greeted with clear blue sky and fresh powder in the high country. For our last full day in the Bishop area, we decided to drive up Rock Creek Canyon and hike the Little Lakes Valley Trail. However, with all the snow in the Eastern Sierras our hike ended up being a snowshoe adventure.

On Tuesday, May 9, 2017, we drove up Rock Creek Road as far as we could before the snow stopped us. We parked by the side of the road and started our trek on the snow covered road bed.

Our journey started high above the banks of Rock Creek Lake. This area is very popular with cross-country and back-country skiers. The trail was easy to follow. However, we had to take it slow and keep our speed down.

We started our adventure at 10,035 feet. While the trail was not steep. It did steadily rise. By the time we stopped for lunch we were at 10,500. It has been over five years since we busted out the snowshoes, and we were out on them for nearly four hours. We're going to feel it tomorrow!

While the trail showed lots of use, we only ran into a few people. The hills on the right in the photo below are a favorite for the back-country skiers. They like to hike up to the top and then ski down.  As we were finishing lunch, and starting our return, we heard a whoop and a holler and, looking up through our monoculars, saw two young skiers challenging the avalanche chutes high above us!

Just in case you were thinking of stopping along the way...

Here we got our first look at Rock Creek. As we worked our way up the canyon, the creek would play hide and seek under the snow.

After 1.7 miles, we finally reached the trailhead. We had to do a little digging to get our trailhead photo, but it was worth it.  Who shortened the sign?

Our trail soon took us into the John Muir Wilderness. John Muir spent his life advocating for the protection of the wild parts of the Sierra Nevada. He believed that public support for the protection of these lands would come about if more of the public experienced these areas and he formed the Sierra Club for just this reason.

Here comes Rock Creek again.  This is a view back down the trail as we trekked up the largest of the hills we challenged.

Glaciers carved an extensive chain of lakes framed by the spectacular 13,000-foot peaks of Bear Creek Spire, Mt. Dade, Mt. Abbot and Mt. Mills.

We thought about going up canyon a little further to have lunch at Heart Lake, but the view from this little hill was just too good to pass up.

We found a nice rock and settled in to have our lunch.  We got to look up at a gorgeous alpine cirque ringed by huge, beautiful peaks.

We took a video from our perch so you could enjoy the view of mountain peaks all around!

This panoramic shot also gives you an idea of how far the beauty stretched:

After lunch, we started back. Many of the cross-country skiers forego the trail with its steep hills, and ski a more level course along the banks of Rock Creek.  While this is easier, it's a risky route as Spring progresses, because the snow and ice on the stream and lake get softer and softer. We decided to follow their tracks to get a closer look at some of the small lakes. However, with all the snow and ice we couldn't tell where the creek ended and the lake began.  We spent a nervous 10 minutes or so hoping that the icy cover over the lake would hold us until we got back over dry land.

In researching this hike, we found a number of comments about Tom's Place. Tom's Place was originally built in 1917 by a German man named Hans Lof.  It all started with a much needed gas station to fuel the traffic moving up from Southern California.  Lof built a cookhouse, added a store and corrals, then started packing people into the mountains for a wilderness getaway. The menu hasn't changed much in 20 years.  The building hasn't changed much in half a century.  It still has the same sign, the same storefront, same wood-beam construction, and the same benches out front!

What it is famous for is its pies!  We decided that was the place to go for Hap-pie Hour after our big snowshoe.  We took in one last view of Rock Creek --

-- and headed to Tom's Place for pie.

Tomorrow we move to Benton Hot Springs. After three days of adventure, we need a good soak in the hot springs.