Franklin Lakes and Forester Lake
A four-day backpacking trip in Mineral King, Sequoia National Park
Day 0: Camping at Horse Creek on Lake Kaweah
The hike started out with a deviation from our original plan, which was to camp the first night at Cold Springs Campgroud in Mineral King. It turns out Cold Springs went to a reservation system after being first-come-first-served, and by the time I realized that, all the sites were booked for the night we needed. Oops!
I was able to find one site available at Horse Creek campground on Lake Kaweah, so I took it. It was pretty much our only option; all of the hotels in Three Rivers were booked up as far as I could tell. We got to the campground in the afternoon, and while the campground itself was quite nice (it has free showers!), it was horribly hot. Temps were 105 F during the day and at night it was probably about 80 F. We also didn’t get the benefit of spending a night at higher altitude before starting to hike, as Horse Creek is only around 800 ft in elevation. Oh well… the one bright spot was that I was able to capture this nice shot during sunset.
Day 1: Mineral King to Franklin Lakes
We set out early from Horse Creek, knowing it takes well over an hour to drive down the narrow and winding Mineral King Rd. to get to the trailhead. Our first stop was the ranger station to pick up our permits. At this point I need to tell you that the itinerary we had going in was quite different from what we ended up doing. Originally, the plan was to hike south over Farewell Gap and head down Little Kern River a ways to set up camp for night one. Then we would swing east over to Shotgun Creek and make our way back north past Silver Lake over Shotgun Pass on day 2. However, the ranger advised against this plan, as the trails past Farewell Gap are not maintained at all, and going up Shotgun Creek would mean a lot of bushwhacking. On top of all that, the area was damaged in a fire the previous year, and it was possible the trail was gone entirely. That kind of trip wasn’t quite what we were looking for. Luckily, the ranger was able to switch our permits from Farewell Gap to Franklin Pass, so we got a new itinerary: Franklin Lakes the first night, over Franklin Pass to Forester Lake the second night, back to Franklin Lakes for the third night, and then hike out on day 4.
New itinerary in hand, we set out hiking for the first day. The trail to
Franklin Lake starts out somewhat level and then climbs steadily from
Mineral King’s 7800 ft of elevation to Franklin Lake at 10,400 ft over about
6 or 7 miles. Along the way we passed several waterfalls and a wide
variety of bright wildflowers.
Climbing higher, parts of the trail became more rocky, but it was always well maintained and easy to follow. As we hiked, the sky was cloudy and eventually it started to rain, so out came the rain coats and pack covers. The rain was on and off, and when we made it to Franklin Lake we had a nice break from the rain to set up our tents.
Franklin Lake has a man-made dam at the end you first come to on the trail,
and there’s a nice developed camp site below the dam we chose to use. It
wasn’t as scenic as some of the sites further ahead (which we used on our
return two days later), but it’s very convenient and has nice access to
the stream for water. After the tents were up, I walked up to the dam
and snapped this shot of lower Franklin Lake with Florence Peak obscured
by clouds in the background:
This one was taken looking the other direction, down Franklin Creek:
Once the sun had gone down, we quickly climbed into the tents and tried to get some sleep. Unusually for me, I actually got to sleep fairly easily! Of course, that precious sleep was interrupted by a thunderstorm around 1 AM. Overnight storms aren’t too common in the Sierra Nevada, so I guess we were lucky in that we got to witness a rarity. The heavy rain drops made a racket on the tent fly, and the wind started picking up as the storm continued. Luckily, it never got too bad, and eventually the storm subsided, allowing me to get back to sleep.
Day 2: Over Franklin Pass to Forester Lake
We woke up on day 2 to yet more rain. Not wanting to break camp in the rain and risk getting our gear wet, we waited it out and eventually got a break in the weather. After eating breakfast, refilling our water at the stream, and packing everything up, we got started around 10:30 for our hike over Franklin Pass. All the while as we climbed, thick clouds moved in and out of the area. When we got to the top, we started hearing a few rumbles of thunder. Being up at 11,800 ft is not an ideal place to be in a storm, so while the views from the pass were amazing, we decided to hurry up and start hiking down the other side to avoid being literally inside a thunderstorm. The weather thankfully cleared up as we made our way down from the pass.
On the other side of Franklin Pass is a nice, densely forested valley. On our way down we were treated to a chorus of coyote howls emanating from the other side. First one started howling, then a second joined in, then maybe 5 or 6 more took up the song. I’m sure it had nothing to do with us, but it seemed like a nice welcome to their domain.
After an easy 1.5 miles through the woods, we arrived at Forester Lake.
Forester Lake makes an excellent spot to camp; it has lots of wide open
flat ground around it for tents with easy access to the water. The lake
itself is crystal clear with abundant trout and grass around the perimeter.
Day 3: Franklin Lake Again
Day 3 was just day 2 in reverse: Start from Forester Lake, hike over Franklin pass, and camp at Franklin Lakes. This time the weather was much nicer though, allowing us to spend some time at Franklin Pass to take in the view.
Here’s the view looking East towards Mt. Whitney:
Looking south along the ridge:
Franklin Lake from the shore:
This time we took one of the campsites above Franklin Lake. The sites there are smaller, and require a hike down to access the lake, but the views make the inconvenience worth it!
Day 4: Hike Out in a Hurry
The defining feature of day 4 was waking up to the smell of smoke and the hazy look to the sky. Not knowing where that was coming from, we decided to just pack up as fast as possible and limit breakfast to a protien bars. Turns out that smoke was blowing in from far away. The good thing about getting such an early start though (about 6:30 AM) was that we saw a lot of animals on the hike out.
Here’s a Sooty Grouse in the middle of its mating display:
And here are a couple of deer:
Gallery
