mineral king to columbine lake area??

“i'm in the process of planning a trip from mineral king to the columbine lakes area. has anyone done this hike? on a scale of 1-5(5 being most difficult)how hard of a trip would this be. what kind of elevation gain and temps. in july or august? any info is appreciated.”

“Actually, there are a pair of trips being planned by some of us on this forum that includes that hike. Tekapo posted a map to Columbine Lake from Mineral King at this link.

There is a thread devoted to the trip at this link.

There are trip pages posted also for early July 2003 on the trip page. Click on the hiking boot print icon at the top of this page.

Hope this helps a little. Others who have actually done this hike will chime in also as they run across this thread.”

“If your planning on going up over Sawtooth, you better have your quads in shape...it's a burner..the trail isn't graded, and the ground surface is very loamy...Don't let this discourage you, as Mineral King is so beautiful...it's def. worth every quad burning step”

“is there another way in?”

“Coyote, I did that trip two summers ago - I went up through Bear Paw Meadow through Kaweah Gap and then up Lost Canyon to get to Columbine. Altogether it was three and a half of the best days of my life. The first part was tough ('cuz I was out of shape), but it was entirely worth it. Coming down Sawtooth Pass is definitely easier than up.”

“backpackingcowboy what was your total milage for that trip? where did you stop to camp?”