A trip in the Golden Trout Wilderness

“On Saturday afternoon after we got off work, one of my seasonals, John, and I headed up to the Lewis Camp Trailhead. We headed out on the trail at about 6:30 and twilight came quickly as we decended into the Golden Trout Wilderness...

The trail from Lewis Camp splits many times and you can head to different destinations. The portion that we took heads down to the Little Kern River then over to Trout Meadows. This is a part of the Jordan Trail which was constructed in 1861.

The trail is steep in spots but soon you find yourself on a relatively flat ridge separating the Little Kern River basin towards the north from the Freeman Creek basin towards the south. And the views are incredible! Across the Little Kern Basin you can see the higher peaks that form the boundary between Sequoia National Forest and Sequoia National Park. Across the Freeman Creek basin you can see the Needles. Ahead you spot Castle Rock and in the distance Olancha Peak. We passed two guys and their pack train and stopped and chatted with them for a little bit.

We spent the first night near Jug Spring. The night was so still and quiet... Well, until sometime in the midde of the night when I heard what can best be described as a cross between a coyote and Bigfoot! I woke John up and even he couldn't figure out what it was that was making that noise. But it was far off and it eventually stopped calling so we managed to get some sleep.

In the morning we filtered a little bit of water from the spring and continued our descent to the Little Kern River. The forest is truly magnificent along this trail. There are huge cedar, sugar pine, white and red fir, ponderosa and Jeffrey pine, and an understory of manzanita and wildflowers. Particularly abundant were the bright red snowplants.

Down down down we went and eventually started to see and hear the Little Kern River to the left. At this point the river is flowing fast and furious amongst huge granite boulders and butting up against granite cliffs. Above the granite in places is darker basalt. Then we reached the bridge. There the scene is indeed beautiful! There are several campsites near the river on both sides of the bridge. We stopped there for lunch and cooled off our feet in the river. We saw a lone backpacker cross the bridge, the only one we saw on our three days out. We also spotted two rattlesnakes within minutes of each other!

After the river the trail climbs up a dry rocky slope which this time of year is a rock garden. We saw lupine, mule ears, stonecrop, Indian paintbrush, yarrow, western wallflower, Ithurial’s spear, and lots of other flowers…

It’s about 2.5 miles from the river to Trout Meadows. It’s a dry portion of trail and mostly sunny so be sure to get plenty of water at the river. Along the way we passed a member of the Backcountry Horseman’s Association whom I’ve talked with many times. He gave us the combination to the Trout Meadow Guard Station (Cabin) so we’d have its facilities to use.

After you go over the last ridge the trail turns north and you are greeted with the wide green expanse of Trout Meadows. What a site after a couple miles of dry dusty trail! And I’ve never seen so many birds before, they were incredible! We saw a Western Tanager, Mountain Bluebird, Morning Doves, lots of White-Headed Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Juncos, Ravens, a Red-tailed Hawk, a Flicker, and many others. I guess the place to be if you’re a bird in the southern sierra is Trout Meadows!

At the cabin we set up our stuff at a nearby campsite and layed down to rest in the shade. There is a nice spring next to the cabin but there isn’t much to the cabin itself. It was built in 1919 and has been fixed up a bit over the years but it’s still as rustic as rustic can be.

We took the rest of the afternoon pretty easy. I walked another mile or so up the trail to photograph the trees and meadows. I laughed at a pair of chipmunks as they spiraled up and down a pine chasing each other. I watched a pair of White-headed Woodpeckers try to defend their territory from a Stellar’s Jay. The sky was a perfect blue and the meadows were a perfect spring green and I couldn’t imagine a more perfect place!

That evening we decided to gather wood for a fire. As night fell we were suddenly treated to a couple of groups of coyotes serenading us. They were so loud, one group couldn’t have been more than ¼ mile away! And their voices echoed off the surrounding mountains... it was beautiful and eerie at the same time.

We both slept rather well that night, no Bigfoot calls this time to wake us, lol. We packed up in the morning, made sure our campfire was dead out, and somewhat reluctantly left the inviting meadows and their abundant feathered residents.

The first part of the hike out, the portion just back to the Little Kern River, was mostly downhill and it was easy. We again ate lunch at the river but after an hour began the long trek out. The elevation change from river to trailhead is about 2,000 feet over the distance of about 4 miles. So it is a tough climb back out of there! We made good time, though, and only stopped a couple of times. The views of the mountains were incredible that afternoon!

We both hope to get back into the Golden Trout again soon... Maybe we'll go to Gray Meadow. Or maybe Coyote Lakes? Or Maggie Lakes? There's too many choices!

Complete Trip Report with Pictures :) http://www.tarol.com/troutmeadows.html”

“i would love to make it out to the G.T. wilderness.
one of these days i will”

“Thank you WindWalker, I need to write down how to do that ;)”

“WOW WOW WOWOWOWOOWOW! that's what it's ALLLL about!

man, i'd love to go to this place someday! are there golden trout there? as i recall, it's one of the few indigenous trout in the US and supposedly one of the tastiest too. fantastic report, thanks for sharing!”

“WOW WOW WOWOWOWOOWOW! that's what it's ALLLL about!

man, i'd love to go to this place someday! are there golden trout there? as i recall, it's one of the few indigenous trout in the US and supposedly one of the tastiest too. fantastic report, thanks for sharing!

i couldn't get the link to open”

“Yes, stratdewd, there are indeed Golden Trout there, and they are beautiful :) I'll leave them for you to catch and eat, though...”

“i'm not one of these guys who's really into whiping out the fish and actually i don't really like fish all that much but fresh trout is hard to beat. great way to keep your pack weight down too....don't take food, just catch a little when you get there.

you sure that link is correct?”

“So, where is the GT Wilderness? The western side of the Sierras? Nearest town? Looks like a nice hike.”

“ok, got it to work that time. nice ppics, and cool homepage.”

“Thanks for the nice report and gorgeous pics. To see country that I've read about in books was a real treat. Very different than here in the North Woods.”

“The Golden Trout Wilderness is in the Sequoia and Inyo National Forests in the southern part of the Sierra Nevada in California. It actually spans west to east so there's a lot of varied terrain...

And stratdewd, glad you got the link to work, and thanks :)”