Kern-Kaweah and Kaweah Basins

As the trail nears the young Roaring River, further views of Cloud Canyon open up. On Glacier ridge on the right are more small lakes hidden in small cirques.

Cloud Canyon

Kern-Kaweah and Kaweah Basins via Colby Pass, September, 2000.

I remembered some old black and white pictures of this meadow before me, and it showed the Whaleback in the background and a flock of sheep on the meadow in the foreground. Fortunately, the sheep are long gone and forbidden in the Sierra, that problem replaced with new ones.
The trail curved around the skirt of the meadow, sometimes close to the stream, and entered the small woods that housed a long abandoned campsite. Further down trail, after dodging in and out of wooded cover or open meadow areas, an established camp was encountered on the left in some sparse trees. We continued on and soon came upon the crossing of the young Roaring River. This took my a bit by surprise because I had not paid enough attention to the map and I was sure I was already on the right side of the river. No matter, it was an easy broad crossing on small rocks, and I am sure in early season it would have been an easy but wet crossing. The second surprise was all of the climbing the trail did to get up canyon.

The whaleback from the trail at the foot of this massive fin.

The trail began to switchback on easy trail, with an entertaining view of some falls and cascades on my left. After some warm climbing on moderate trail, we passed through a drift gate and into a shaded wooded area. We did not see it then, but we were passing into one of Shorty Lovelace's cabin areas (incorrectly marked on the 7.5 map), one of many (at one time over 40) that dot the Sierra. More on that later. Once again a canyon "step" was topped and the trail once again leveled out under a leafy canopy. I could see a ways up canyon, but the view was partially blocked. There was no hiding the characteristic "U" shape of the glacier carved canyon, but I unfortunately could not see the head of the canyon. Clouds were beginning to form, always bad news when that happens early in the day before noon, so we did not have time to drop packs and head up canyon a ways to see its head. A small tragedy indeed.