Sauntering to Yosemite's Helen Lake

In August 2019, my long-time hiking buddy, David Witt, agreed to accompany me on an ambitious 15-mile cross-country day-hike from our Mono Pass camp to Lost Lake in the Ansel Adams Wilderness.  My goal was to rephotograph three sketches that John Muir had made of the southern-most Koip Crest pinnacles. To do this we would need to cross two off-trail passes (11,960’ Kuna Crest Saddle and 11,440’ Lost Lake Pass) and cover the intervening territory of the upper cirque of Kuna Creek. The actual difficulty of the first pass (rated Class 2) and the upland terrain of the Kuna Creek Cirque would determine how far we could go.

We got stopped three-quarters of the way to the top of the first pass when the steep footing became sandy and a class 3 headwall loomed above us. I realized we would never make it to the Muir sketch sites and the way down this pass would be more dangerous than the way up. Reason prevailed and we descended to a lovely grassy alpine spot among the rocks serenaded by the many tones of the snowmelt waters under the rocks.

I spotted a pattern on a rock that looked just like a hunting wolf and sitting quietly for an hour above Helen Lake I was visited by a curious short-tailed weasel investigating my hiking staff. Pikas called from the boulders and gray-crowned rosy finches flew over the snowfields. We had a lovely afternoon soaking up the wild wonders while resting and sauntering back across the meadows to our Mono Pass camp.

Note: click on any image to enlarge and scroll through.

Black Bear scratching tree

Assessing our situation

The Hunting Wolf Rock