Kern-Kaweah and Kaweah Basins

I have way too many pictures of this beautiful place, and not enough room to show them all to you. This is the view of "Picket Creek Lake" from the rocky ramp we used to get around the lake. The high peak on the right horizon is Mt. Whitney, the summit of which I had visitied earlier that year. On the center horizon is Wallace Creek Basin.

"Picket Creek Lake"

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

I met Dave near the shore and we began to turn the lake on the right. The route, used at least by deer, made its way along a slope and over the top of a small cliff above the water. Hopping down from the cliff bypass I entered another chunk of paradise.

Here is Dave on the route to the campsite just ahead in the shade and trees. That campsite has to be one of the best in the Sierra at a lake that is one of the most beautiful small lakes in the Sierra. Just ahead you can see both the inlet, and near the left edge of the picture, the outlet. That proximity makes this lake very unique.

Here was a broad level shaded camping area with a fire-ring (unnecessary and forbidden) near a beautiful inlet of crystal clear gurgling water which cascaded in a short falls into the nearly perfectly round clear lake. Not twenty yards from the inlet was the outlet, which scrambled it way downward on its way to the Kern River.

Mid-picture is the gully I came down from the ridge to the right. Out of sight to the left is the easy bypass that gets you past the steep rockbound shore. The route-finding is easy in this area...if you have a 7.5 map.

Across from us was a fairly level beautiful pure granite dyke sparsely studded with trees, which framed the Sierra Crest. The area also boasted level tracts of level white granite, the backpackers’ friend and ally. What an outstandingly beautiful place!