Hiking High On Yosemite's Mono Pass Trail

September 4, 2005

By Bump Diamond
Man About Town

Editor's Note: This article appeared in the September/October issue of Mammoth Monthly magazine.

   This is high country. Really high. The trailhead for the Mono Pass Trail in Yosemite National Park is at 9,690 feet.
    It's so high that the best time to access this terrific high-country trail is autumn, when the water levels are down, the grasses turn to varying shades of gold and russet and the breeze is warm on your back.
    The trailhead for this eight-mile, moderate hike is just 1.4 miles from the Tioga Pass gate, making it very accessible to Eastside hikers coming from Mammoth. The added bonus, of course, is that it's a flat-out beautiful hike, loaded with big, wide vistas across Dana Meadows to the Kuna Crest. It's also rich with local history you can explore along the way.
    In fact, the remains of an old log cabin lie less than two miles from the trailhead, among lodgepole pines and alongside one of many lovely alpine meadows.
    For the history buffs, the payoff comes 3 _  miles into the hike, when the Mono Pass Trail—an ancient Native American route connecting Mono Lake with the west side of the Sierra—meets the Parker Pass Trail near the park's eastern border, above Bloody Canyon.
    There, alongside two ponds, are five old cabins that once housed workers of the Golden Crown and Ella Bloss gold mines. The cabins are in excellent condition, and it doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to sense what it must have been like in those days.
    There are two options for a return trip. A favorite among many is to take a short cross-country ramble up and over a ridge to the shores of Spillway Lake. Often, hikers will see the odd sight of sea gulls there, just in from Mono Lake. You may as well see a camel walking alongside the lake, that's how out-of-place a sea gull is at 10,450 feet, but that's the Sierra for you.
     For the return, pick up the Parker Pass Trail on the north side of Spillway Lake and enjoy the sight of the soft autumn sun as it strikes Mt. Dana (13,057 ft.) and Mt. Gibbs (12,773 ft.), which are in your face all the way back.

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