High Sierra Trips - Mineral King
We headed up to the Mineral King area in Sequoia for a weekend of camping at the Cold Spring campground with the plan to climb a few peaks in the area. The weather ended up being cloudy and rainy so it wasn't the best for climbing, but we still got to one summit. The first day we headed up the Franklin pass trail past Franklin lakes and then climbed up the south face to the summit of Rainbow mountain(12,043')! Luckily we had a short break in the clouds giving us some excellent views right as we got to the summit, but it wasn't long before we were back in the fog. We headed back down in the fog and spent the night at the Cold Spring camp. The next day the weather was looking even worse, so we gave up on doing any more peaks. My hiking partner decided he was just gonna head home a day early, but I decided to hike up to White Chief valley and explore some caves he had told me about. And there were lots and lots of caves to explore!! Water even flows into the caves making underground streams and waterfalls that eventually all emerges from a large hole in the rock where it cascades down the cliffs! It was amazing. I spent all day exploring up there and I could've stayed longer. I headed back down the trail late in the day and spent one more night at the Cold Spring camp before heading home.
Mineral King Valley
Looking down into Mineral King Valley
Farewell Gap
Franklin Lakes
Franklin Lakes
Climbing Rainbow mountain
Views E from Rainbow mountain
In the clouds on Rainbow mountain
Cold Spring Campground
Mineral King Valley
White Chief Valley
White Chief Valley
White Chief Valley mine
Waterfalls
Caves
Caves
Caves
I found a waterfall flowing into this cave
More Caves
Looking out one of the caves
White Chief Valley
A cave with a stream flowing into it
White Chief Valley
White Chief Valley
Giant Sequoias
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www.californiamountainadventure.com
Amazing views... thanks for sharing
Mineral King is a really beautiful area. Pretty much everywhere you look up there is an amazing view!
Awesome post, makes me want to go visit. How was the NPS did you see much of them?
Thanks! I highly recommend Mineral King. There are lots of awesome trails up there. I didn't see any rangers on this trip. In fact I think I've only seen maybe 4 rangers total in all of my trips in the Sierra Nevada over the last 7 or so years. Doesn't mean that they aren't out there, but thats my experience.