A Backpack Cross-Country Traverse of the Minarets

A stitched panorama of Anona Lake from the northeast shore near the outlet. That is an actual glacier reflected in the lake waters!

Anona Lake

A Cross-Country Traverse of the Minarets, August/September 2006

After a short walk across the lawn on faint trail, we arrived at the shore of beautiful Anona Lake. What an excellent lake this is in its glacier carved bowl, decorated with mixed conifers (Mountain Hemlocks being particularly nice looking) and sporting a soon-to-be-rare glacier at one end. It is hard to believe that this lake may be the third or fourth best looking lake in the Minarets. We shucked off out packs for a look around and to recharge our water bladders.

The shoreline near the outlet of beautiful Anona Lake.

One thing is certain when you are in the Minarets: it just does not look like other places in the Sierra. The flora seems different for one thing, with its Mountain Hemlock (a favorite tree of John Muir), along with Red Fir, White Pine and the ever present Lodgepole Pine. Wildflowers seem even more numerous than elsewhere in the Sierra. Much of the rock that looks like granite is actually extremely metamorphosed volcanic matter that varies widely in shade and color. In places the jagged horizon seems like the sharp teeth of some primitive carnivore. The rock seems especially adept at rounded rolling terrain hosting pockets of lawns and flowers. The timberline country trees seem to grow in small clumps or scattered individuals, making altogether some ideal country for cross-country travel. You could camp a week at this lake and never run out of places to explore, hike and climb.