Kern-Kaweah and Kaweah Basins

Dave (lower right) heads up Picket Creek canyon a ways. The obvious pass on the horizon can be done, but is not easy on the far side. As you can see, this area is dominated by yellow rock, so unlike the white granite below us.

Back to Picket Creek

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

After one last look we headed down the gentle slope aiming towards the upper Picket Creek canyon. Dave wanted to go up the canyon a ways, which he did, and I only followed a short way up just enough to see up into the canyon a ways before heading for "Picket Lake". I knew it would be a significant trip to get any meaningful distance up the canyon, and I wanted to explore the lakes and ponds nestled in the convoluted granite landscape below me in that Sierra wonder called timberline. If I were to come back to this area, I would like to go up that canyon and cross "Picket/Kern-Kaweah Pass". The cross-country sure looked easy, and I know of one person who has crossed it a few times and said it was easy.

This is looking up the inlet of "Picket Lake". So naturally, this is Picket Creek. At the outlet the creek is not so lazy. There it begins a downhill sprint to the Kern River.

I descended to the lakeshore below me over sometime complex but always easy terrain. The area was beautiful, and I was really enjoying my surroundings, resisting the temptation to photograph everything in sight. As I continued down the drainage, there was one area I especially delighted in. The water was clear and shallow, and scattered through one section were granite ribs and stones artfully arranged allowing a long scamper of rock-hopping that was almost akin to walking on water. I stopped several times to watch the water swirl around the rocks beneath my feet, or to gaze into clear pools. I could have spent a week exploring this area, and I wish I could.