Last weekend, we hiked up just above 11,000 ft. This weekend is my husband’s birthday, so we’re doing it up big by hiking up to almost 12,000 ft. to Bishop Pass.
Since Bishop, CA, is a 3.5-hour drive from Tahoe, and the hike up to Bishop Pass is nearly 13 miles round trip and would take us up to eight hours to complete, we needed to drive down the day before, stay overnight, then get up super early the following morning to get to the trailhead.
After a long drive down Hwy 395, and a short “detour” through the June Lake area, we arrived in Bishop, found our basic lodging, and got ourselves settled in. Before heading to bed, we did a quick walk through downtown Bishop, which felt great after several hours in the car that day.
At 4:30 a.m., our alarms went off, we got up and got ready, packed our things, and drove to the nearby Denny’s for a protein-hearty breakfast, where a booth behind us was filled with boisterous twenty-something friends who had not yet gone to bed after their night out. I remember those days. 🤣
We hurried to get back on the road for the 30-minute drive to the trailhead in John Muir Wilderness. When we arrived, the “overnight” lot was filled with vehicles, and the day-use lot had several available spaces, so we got great parking.
Without too much delay, we started down this beautiful trail.
Almost immediately, we were already climbing the rocky terrain along South Lake in the spectacular early-morning light.
The scenery was already stunning, but I had no idea what was yet to come.
And then my husband spotted our first pika along the trail! They kind of remind me of a smaller version of a chinchilla.
Then we got to a section of stacked switchbacks that we coined “Lombard” after the crazy street in San Francisco that we drove down once.
About two miles into our climb, we had this absolutely unforgettable and breathtaking experience. What follows here is an insane amount of photos of insanely beautiful scenery.
Unending beauty to take in on this hike.
And just like that, the terrain changed to more of a yellow/red rock.
And then, something we have no explanation for.
Prairie dogs at 11,000 ft in the Sierra.
Trust me. We were just as perplexed.
After the beautiful terrain with lakes, creeks, waterfalls, and some lush foliage, the remainder of the trail in front of us looked like this:
Yet another hiking trail crime scene.
Looking down at these gnarly switchbacks that we just hiked up.
Then we found the snow.
Snow, ice, and crystal-clear water.
We carefully crossed the slippery section of snow still covering the trail, hoping not to bust through.
And after a little more hiking through rocky terrain, we arrived at our destination: the top of Bishop Pass.
We stopped for a few minutes at the top to sit and refuel with some snacks before heading back down.
Then it was time to start our way back down.
On our way down, we wandered out to a natural overlook to take in the sights below.
We were intrigued by the sound of gushing water that we could not see any evidence of under the boulders of the trail.
Now past the roughest, rockiest of the terrain, we were back into the wetter terrain.
Back to Saddlerock Lake.
Beautiful unnamed lake.
It was at this point that my husband decided he wanted to turn this hike into more of a loop route rather than an out-and-back because he saw a way to cut over to another section of trail that would bring us past a different area we hadn’t already seen.
Generally speaking, loops can be superior to out-and-back routes because on a loop, you get to see different things and not just the same things from two different directions. But often, this kind of deviation can result in less-than-desirable situations, like bushwhacking cross-country, slipping across slide-slope terrain, traversing cumbersome rock fields, or walking along a paved road. So, I am not always thrilled at these impromptu ideas, and over the years, I have developed a healthy skepticism. 🤷♀️
To be fair, he’s usually reviewed the map before making these suggestions, but the maps rarely have the ability to indicate spots where you’ll get cliffed out, for example. Because of this, we often end up wandering around, back-tracking, traipsing in the general direction of where we want to be, but we can sometimes add unintended elevation gain and mileage as a result, which isn’t always fun, especially when your legs are already fatigued or you’re starting to get hungry. In my recollection, however, I do not believe we’ve ever gotten lost, but we have had to “find our own way” numerous times. 😂
All in all, I generally prefer to be on a defined trail. Psychologically, I feel more at ease, and it can be more efficient because I’m not wasting energy on unnecessary or unintended miles or elevation. It can be deflating when you hike off-trail for a distance only to find out you need to turn around and go another way.
And that is kind of what happened next on this hike.
We ventured cross-country and ended up at a somewhat steep rock field above Ruwau Lake that really did not look fun to navigate, and then you start to think about busting an ankle in that kind of terrain. Plus, we couldn’t easily see a logical route along the lake that was safe, even if we did venture down across these boulders.
So, we backtracked a little bit and attempted to make our way along the perimeter of the lake, ending up at another rock field, but at least this one was not steep.
Eventually, we made it to the opposite side of Ruwau Lake. In the photo below, just to the right of the largest patch of snow is where we would have descended down that first boulder field and continued along the right side of the lake. As you can see in the photo, it wouldn’t have been an easy route to take.
Somewhere along the shore of Ruwau Lake, we did find some semblance of a trail that we expected to eventually take us to the actual trail for Chocolate Lakes.
Many sections of this “route” were very steep and rocky, both on ascending sections and descending sections. Sometimes, it was hard to believe what we were on was even the “trail.”
But, despite all the climbing and some treacherously loose descending on this questionable route, we were rewarded with some fun wildflowers along the way to Chocolate Lakes.
Eventually, we arrived at Chocolate Lakes and it was pretty darn beautiful.
You can kind of get a sense for where the “chocolate” name comes into play, with the distinct cocoa-colored mountain behind the lake.
I was fascinated by the very defined “line” where the gray/white rock stops and the chocolate-colored rock begins.
We continued along the trail, going down a rocky descent, surrounded by beautiful landscape.
After winding around the lake, and climbing back up to return to the “main” trail we hiked in on, we passed by picturesque South Lake once more on our way out.
And, for good measure, at over 12 miles logged, a final set of stone steps to kick us when we were down!
The early-morning hike to Bishop Pass was incredibly memorable and will be held as one of my favorites. On this route, we hiked through such a variety of terrain, including pristine lakes, flowing creeks, rocks, boulders, and snow, along with seeing abundant wildlife – and summitting at nearly 12,000 ft to top it off!
Bishop Pass hike | |
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Total Distance | 12.85 mi |
Total Time | 7:24:58 |
Total Ascent | 2,726 ft |
Max Elevation | 11,815 ft |
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