Little Lakes Valley • Hike • California • All Triplogs • HikeArizona.COM

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

Hidden Lakes Loop - Little Lakes Valley, CA

Hiking		Sep 26 2023
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Hiking	4.46 Miles	579 AEG

Hiking	4.46 Miles	5 Hrs 35 Mns	1.15 mph
	579 ft AEG	1 Hour 43 Mns Break

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This hike in the Little Lakes Valley of the Eastern Sierras goes to the less visited Hidden Lakes a short distance to the east off the main trail on an un-signed use trail. Starting at the Little Lakes Trailhead, the hike starts out following the heavily used main trail to Box Lake, the fourth of a string of lakes visible from this trail. About halfway along the west bank on the main trail there is a use trail which descends to the lakes edge. From there it follows the lakes edge around its north end crossing Rock Creek on a log jam where it leaves Box Lake flowing about 100 yds into Heart Lake.

Continuing around the north end of Box Lake the use trail leaves that lake and follows a stream which flows out of the first of the Hidden Lakes on this loop. Once leaving the main trail at Box Lake I didn't see another person until ending the loop at Marsh Lake. This was a welcome period of solitude enjoying the beauty of these lakes. I stopped for a long lunch on a high point along the north side of this first of the Hidden Lakes while watching trout surfacing on the tranquil lake surface.

The use trail becomes faint between some of the five Hidden Lakes I passed on this loop before reaching Rock Creek where it flows out of Marsh Lake. Having the gps track I had plotted on Google Earth helped avoid mindless wandering. Crossing Rock Creek with its substantial flow was somewhat of a challenge. A use trail led to a possible rock-hopping crossing which looked too risky for me, so I waded across a wide but shallow section with a gravel bottom near its outlet from Marsh Lake. Proceeding around the north bank of Marsh Lake heading for a connection with the main trail, I surprised a young couple enjoying a secluded picnic on a blanket away from the crowded trail.

Fortunately, both they and their two large dogs were friendly. Back on the main trail headed back to the trailhead I encountered my three fishing friends I had met the day before on my hike up the main trail to Gem Lakes. They were headed for the evening bite along the shore of Long Lake after a fishless morning on a creek in the Mammoth area.

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Sep 25 2023

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

Sierra Nevada, CA

Hiking		Sep 25 2023
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Hiking	8.55 Miles	1,073 AEG

Hiking	8.55 Miles	7 Hrs 43 Mns	1.24 mph
	1,073 ft AEG	50 Mns Break

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This was a repeat of a hike I did on Oct 4, 2014. It is a popular hike and for good reason being one of the most scenic in the Eastern Sierra featuring many beautiful alpine lakes and only a modest elevation gain. However, the trailhead is the highest road-accessible trailhead in the Eastern Sierras at 10,250 ft, so if the beautiful scenery doesn't leave you breathless, the hike will.

I arrived at the TH parking lot at 9:10am on a Monday to find plenty of places to park with a steady flow of arriving hikers. Most hikers were friendly, and I had numerous short conversations as they passed me during my stops to take photos. I would see a trio of fly fishers several times throughout the day and stopped to watch them fishing. The most successful of the trio was a middle-aged woman. I asked how she had done when we again crossed paths late in the day. She reported that she had caught and released 22 mostly Eastern Brook but also several she called Golden-Rainbow Trout hybrids. She showed me photos of the hybrids on her smart phone - a beautiful combination of gold and rainbow colors. Her two male companions were in good spirits despite not having fared as well.

I passed 7 lakes over the 4.3 mile hike turning around at the largest of the Gem Lakes and not climbing up to Morgan Pass as I had in 2014 because the lack of oxygen at the 10,000+ altitude was tiring me out. Each lake is a beauty with Gem Lake having the most vivid blue-green color. This hike was definitely worth doing a second time for the amazing scenery but also to see if I still had the endurance needed for this high-altitude hike 9 years later.

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[ checklist ] Long Lake

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Sep 19 2022

Mosquito Flat Backpacker Campground

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

Eastern Brook Lakes from Mosquito Flats TH, CA

Hiking		Sep 19 2022
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Hiking	2.22 Miles	321 AEG

Hiking	2.22 Miles	2 Hrs 35 Mns	0.93 mph
	321 ft AEG	12 Mns Break

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Got a late start on this day due to cooking a big breakfast and yakking with my neighbors over coffee at their campsite. So I decided to take it easy and just explore these two lakes near the Mosquito Flats/Little Lakes Valley Trailhead. Even with extending the hike in a loop around another lake I was able to far exceed my goal "to take it easy". Only 2.2 miles with almost no elevation gain. I didn't see another person on this weekday hike although the well worn trail and its closeness to the trailhead indicates it gets lots of use on weekends and holidays.

If you're looking for an easy 2 mile hike for toddlers (or worn-out oldsters) to see a couple of scenic mountain lakes, this is your ticket. Just don't take them past the two Eastern Brook Lakes to Serene Lake. The small amount of off-trail thrashing isn't worth the effort for that not-so-scenic lake.

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Oct 04 2019

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

Mono Pass from Mosquito Flat TH, CA

Hiking		Oct 04 2019
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Hiking	7.40 Miles	2,169 AEG

Hiking	7.40 Miles	8 Hrs 50 Mns	0.84 mph
	2,169 ft AEG

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[ checklist ] Box Lake Heart Lake Hidden Lakes John Muir Wilderness Little Lakes Valley Marsh Lake Mono Pass Morgan Pass Mount Starr Rock Creek Ruby Lake Summit Lake

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This was my third day hike on a 13 day car camping trip traveling south on HW395 in the Eastern Sierras of California. The hike starts out on the Little Lakes Valley Trail from the Mosquito Flats Trailhead at the end of Rock Creek Road. There are several campgrounds along Rock Creek Road, I chose the upper Pine Grove Campground.

I arrived at the TH at 7:30am motivated to get an early start before the parking lot filled up. While getting out my gear I got in a conversation with a young man about our plans for the day. There appeared to be nobody else in the parking lot but our loud enthusiastic voices evidently woke up two young women backpackers sleeping in their small SUV crossover. They spilled out of their car along with their packs. I apologized for waking them up, but hey, it was time for them to get on the trail anyway.

The trail to Mono Pass forks off the Little Lakes Valley Trail to the right about a half mile from the TH and is marked with a sign. The trail to Mono Pass started out with a fairly gentle uphill grade but with the starting elevation at 10K and Mono Pass at 12k, I was slowed down by the lack of oxygen. There were great views of the Little Lakes Valley and Ruby Lake as the trail climbed up to the pass. After the pass, the trail goes to the small Summit Lake nestled in a shallow valley. I made Summit Lake my turn around point. I was exhausted from the high altitude so took shelter from the howling wind behind a large boulder, had a snack, and took a short nap. After waking from the nap I noticed 3 people hiking near the top of the low ridge to the west. Later I encountered these people on the trail and found out that taking a route from Mono Pass along the top of that ridge provided amazing views of the Trail Lakes and many Sierra peaks to the west. Based on that information, I would recommend taking that route from the pass instead of the trail leading directly to Summit Lake. For a relatively short hike, this one left me exhausted because of my problem with handling altitudes above 10K. However it didn't seem to be bothering the 10 people, some as old as me, that passed me on the trail. This was definitely a worth while hike because of the great views climbing out of the valley and would be even greater taking the route I recommended above (but didn't take). Little Lakes Valley is a better alternative for the first time in this area but I had done that trail exactly 5 years ago on Oct 4, 2014. [ photoset ]

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Oct 08 2015

slegal

Guides 77
Routes 106
Photos 2,987
Triplogs 57

63 male

Joined Jan 27 2007
Thousand Oaks, C

[ checklist ] Bear Creek Spire Box Lake Gem Lakes Heart Lake Long Lake Marsh Lake Morgan Pass Mount Abbot Mount Dade Mount Tom Wheeler Ridge

Sierra Nevada, CA

Hiking		Oct 08 2015
		slegal • Triplogs 57

Hiking	9.10 Miles	1,000 AEG

Hiking	9.10 Miles
	1,000 ft AEG

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On the drive into Mammoth Lakes yesterday, I was very disappointed to see that autumn hasn’t quite arrived yet. Sure there was fresh snow above 10,000 feet, but everywhere I looked, most of the aspen were still green. So I figured that I needed to hike somewhere high in hopes that I would see autumn colors. I chose Little Lakes Valley. The entire hike is above 10,000 feet.

The only aspens I saw on the hike were less than a quarter mile in on the hike. There were a few willows, but not many. What there was a lot of was snow. It was quite pretty photographing the various lakes with snow covered mountains in the background.

Early on I stopped at Marsh Lake and shot a time lapse of the clouds racing across the ski. If interested, you can see the time lapse at this link: https://youtube.com ... 5EYk

I would say that the best part of the hike was climbing Morgan Pass and seeing a lot of snow on Mt. Tom in the distance. I had lunch while on the pass and enjoyed the view.

Upper Gem Lake was also pretty spectacular with lots of fish. There was lots of snow to hike through just to get to the Gem Lakes. I like snow hiking, but didn’t expect to hike in this much snow today. All in all, it was a great hike to start off my short trip to Mammoth.

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Autumn Foliage Observation Isolated

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Oct 07 2015

OdinWiski

Photos 2,351
Triplogs 99

53 male

Joined Jan 31 2015
Chandler, AZ

Sierra Nevada, CA

Backpack		Oct 07 2015
		OdinWiski • Triplogs 99

Backpack

Backpack		2 Days 4 Hrs

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The Little Lakes Valley by Rock Creek in the Eastern Sierras is a beautiful area with gem-like alpine lakes and snow-capped peaks.

We got to the Mosquito Flats TH around 11:00 Wednesday morning and thankfully the parking lot was only 3/4 full because it wasn't on a weekend. We took the Mono Pass turn off shortly after starting on the Little Lakes Valley trail that leads to the Morgan Pass. On the gradual climb up the Mono Pass, it offered a great view of the valley below with Mack, Marsh, Heart and Box lakes.

We turned off to the Ruby Lake, which is sort of tucked away and not frequented by as many hikers. Beautiful lake! We spent a couple of hours there fishing and relaxing and only a couple of people came up during that time.

Time to get back on the Little Lakes Valley trail down below. Instead of taking the Mono Pass all the way back to almost the beginning of the Little Lakes Valley trail, we went cross country and bushwhacked down toward Heart Lake. We ended up having to traverse a bit when we got to a big dropoff that was not wise to do down without ropes and with big packs. Then we found another spot that had a steep rocky yet doable descent, which took us straight down to Little Lakes Valley trail right by Heart Lake.

After passing Box Lake and Long Lake, we turned off to Chickenfoot Lake, which we had planned on setting up camp at. We had Chickenfoot to ourselves for the next two nights. Both nights were uneventful with no bear incidents.

The next day we went up to Morgan Pass and Gem Lakes, which were beautiful! Spent 2-3 hours fishing and exploring around Gem Lakes. We went up the huge talus field by Gem Lakes and got to the unnamed little lake above the saddle. Wiski quicked quite a few of her toe nails climbing and hopping the boulders. So we decided to abandon the plan to check out Treasure Lakes and head back to camp. Treasure Lakes are the only ones in that area that have Goldens. She had gotten "cold tail" the previous night, but surprisingly only took half a day for it to go away. Evening sunset was gorgeous on Chickenfoot.

Friday morning we took our time breaking camp and started hiking back out. Long Lake was beautiful in the morning with reflections of the peaks (it was getting dark when we hiked past it the first day). Since it was Friday, there were quite a lot of day hikers and some backpackers on the trail. Too bad they didn't make the famous Mudpie at the Rock Creek Lodge Resort, but we did get to have their famous chili and one of the homemade pies, along with a couple of Mammoth Epic IPA's

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[ checklist ] Pika (American)

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Cag Shot

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Oct 04 2014

Guides 9
Routes 473
Photos 8,433
Triplogs 626

79 male

Joined Dec 07 2010
Phoenix, AZ

[ checklist ] Box Lake Gem Lakes John Muir Wilderness Little Lakes Valley Long Lake Marsh Lake Rock Creek

Sierra Nevada, CA

Hiking		Oct 04 2014
		Oregon_Hiker • Triplogs 626

Hiking	9.20 Miles	1,365 AEG

Hiking	9.20 Miles	6 Hrs 38 Mns		1.39 mph
	1,365 ft AEG		15 LBS Pack

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This is a very popular hiking destination and I was there on the weekend which added to the crowd. I drove up to the TH at the end of Rock Creek Road Friday afternoon to check it out and the large parking lot was nearly full. I would discover why this was such a popular hiking destination the next day.

The campground at Rock Creek Lake had some empty sites but was a little too populated for me. I drove further down the road to Lower Pine Grove CG which only had 2 sites occupied and decided to stay there for the next 2 nights. As a general rule I prefer dispersed camping to crowded camp grounds but there are few dispersed camping areas on the west side of HW395. The National Forest Visitor's Center at Mono Lake was very helpful providing a list of camp grounds, a small map showing dispersed camping areas and pointed out a few free CGs in the area. The dispersed camping areas were mainly on BLM land on the east side of HW 395. I stayed for 2 nights at the free Hartley Spring CG about a mile west of HW 395 a few miles south of the June Lake Loop. It was a large CG in a Ponderosa Pine forest with clean vault toilets and only 3 sites were occupied. All the CGs where I stayed on this 2 week trip through the Eastern Sierra were well maintained, were exceptionally clean and had large bear proof food lockers. A real plus at the Lower Pine Grove CG was a heated restroom with flush toilets.

After setting up camp at the Lower Pine Grove CG on Friday afternoon I went for a stroll to check out the Rock Creek Lodge located behind the CG. It has 20 cabins of various sizes and prices, a restaurant only open for breakfast, and a small store. They remain open in the winter for cross-country skiers but you must either ski in or pay to have them come get you on a snow mobile. There was a trail from the CG which followed Rock Creek up to Rock Creek Lake. I hiked about a mile up this trail through a meadow and along the creek to a pond. It was a scenic jaunt and I included a couple pics in the photoset.

Saturday morning I got to the TH at 8:30 am and the parking lot was about one third full. Many cars were probably left there by backpackers on multi-day trips. The trail leads through the valley for 4.3 miles with a gentle increase in elevation and passing about 7 lakes along the way. It was a beautiful day with a clear sky and very little breeze making for great reflection pictures in the lakes. The lakes are full of Eastern Brook Trout and they could be seen swimming about in the clear water. A small shallow stream between two of the lakes was packed with these trout. A fellow hiker and I herded (by accident)a bunch of these trout into a small pool (he was walking the bank upstream and I was walking down stream). It made for a great photo op.

There were many people on the trail and having been solo for a week I enjoyed the conversations. I met a backpacker on top of a granite knob which I had climbed to get a photo of the valley. He had slept there that night taking advantage of the heat absorbed by the granite during the day. This would be one of about 6 to 8 encounters I would have on this trip with men of about my age and circumstance (retired) who had been hiking and backpacking in the eastern Sierras throughout their lives and now spend weeks at a time in the area. This fellow was very helpful recommending a number of trails along my travel route south on HW395. He couldn't remember all the names of the trail heads so I whipped out my gps and started naming off trail heads with driving routes I had downloaded for this trip (thanks to Grasshopper). This jogged his memory and I quickly marked his recommended routes on the gps by changing the color to yellow. I ended up going to 3 of his recommended trails and all were spectacular. But then I'm not sure if there are any trails in the eastern Sierras that aren't spectacular.

I hiked for about 2 miles with a foursome of young (20s) backpackers, three guys and an attractive gal. One guy, Josh, was a comedian - every time they paused to discuss which lake we had just encountered he would call out some bizarre name in an authoritative voice that had me convinced until I peeked at the map on my GPS. They asked me to take a group pic of them with the girl's I-phone. As I pointed the camera in their direction to take the picture some scarey grizzly looking old dude totally photo bombed the picture screen. The girl quickly informed me that the I-phone was in selfie mode and changed it so I could take a picture of them.

After reaching the last of the lakes (Gem Lakes) I took the trail up to Morgan Pass gaining about 400 ft elev. The trail is an old mining road which goes over the pass and down to some old mines. I paused at the pass to have lunch and enjoy the view, then started the return to the trail head. A short hike down the other side of the pass would have taken me to more lakes but I didn't relish the hike back up.

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Sep 10 2013

PatrickL

Guides 7
Routes 79
Photos 2,440
Triplogs 652

34 male

Joined Jan 10 2010
Pomona, CA