Circle the Cirque Crest

As you climb the trail up to Granite Pass, you view of Granite Basin gets progressively better. The pass trail is a rocky thing that switch-backs steeply in places. If you get tired, stop and enjoy the view of the beautiful basin below.

Granite Pass

Circle The Cirque Crest - By D.W.Donehoo (All rights reserved)

Day 3. Monday, September 1. The day dawned fairly clear, but began to progressively cloud up as the day wore on. The trail lost some altitude then gained it all back in the approach to Granite Pass. I took a wrong trail branch and ended up at a packer camp, so we did a little cross-country to get to the trail at the bottom of the pass. Climbing up the pass trail was interesting: the last time we were there it was smoothly covered over with snow. I am not sure the trail was an improvement over snow because it seemed about the same effort. The south side of the pass is one of the easiest trail passes in the Sierra. The approach from the north side is much more work, we know.