Kern-Kaweah and Kaweah Basins

Picket Guard Peak is a white tower above this shallow lakelet of Picket Creek.

Picket Creek

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

Reluctantly we left our little piece of nirvana via an obvious small dirt ramp and began the easy stroll through the trees over grass, gruss, dirt and rock. Picket Creek became multi-threaded between long low monoliths of granite that were easy to dance over.

To the left you can see the easy col leading into Kaweah Basin, with the Kaweah Ridge peeking above. The center ridge leads to Kaweah Queen. Below the ridge is Picket Creek  basin leading to the pass beyond to the Kern-Kaweah River.

We began to see open bodies of water that were far more lake-like than Gallats Lake, and there were at least two bodies of water that were indeed true lakes. There were abundant shaded level areas near water that could have served as primitive camps, but with the Picket Lake camp, who would need anything else?