Wildlife, sport and activities, sometimes all at once

(Editor's Note: This story first appeared in the August 2006 issue of Mammoth Monthly magazine. Subscribe here.)

The Parker Lake Trail is the best hike in the region to experience the diversity of geology, flora and fauna in the Eastern Sierra.

The first half-mile or so is the hard part, an uphill tramp through typical Eastern Sierra desert: a sand trail through sagebrush, bunch grass, mules ears and other scrub, with lizards darting ahead of you.

As you climb higher, you'll start to hear rushing water, and far down below to your right you'll see a line of aspen and Jeffrey pines indicating where Parker Creek flows.

The next mile and a half will be an easy stroll through gradually changing terrain. Ahead of you are towering, snow-pocked peaks; marking either side of the canyon are rocky moraines, left there by the glacier that powered through this canyon during the last Ice Age.

You'll start seeing small aspens and some wildflowers; after a while Parker Creek will appear on your right. You've now entered the world that water brings: grasses and flowers, Jeffrey and lodgepole pine, aspens small and large (the white trunks of many large ones have been marred by too many initial-carving hikers). Then the forest gives way, and Parker Lake ripples before you. Straight ahead, some four thousand feet above, are Parker Peak and Koip Peak.

In one 45-minute hike, you've gone from the desert to a High Sierra lake overseen by granite peaks. And then on the way down, about the time you re-enter the desert area, you'll have amazing views of Pacific-blue Mono Lake and its volcanic islands straight ahead; to your left will be the Tioga Pass heading to Yosemite, and to your right, the range of Mono Craters.

All this, and one nice afternoon's hike!

* Trailhead: At the end of the Parker Lake dirt road, between Mono Lake and June Lake.
* Directions: Enter the northern end of the June Lake Loop (Highway 158), south of Lee Vining. A signposted dirt road to Parker Lake will appear in 1.5 miles. The 2.3-mile dirt road ends at the trailhead.
* There are no facilities (restrooms, water) at the trailhead.
* Distance: 3.8 miles round-trip.
* Difficulty: Easy/moderate
* Elevation at trailhead: 7,950 feet
* Elevation at destination: 8,400 feet
* Elevation gain: 450 feet

(Colleen Dunn Bates, a regular contributor to Mammoth Monthly, is the author of "Mammoth From the Inside, The Honest Guide to Mammoth and the Eastern Sierra," from which this article is excerpted. The book is available at Amazon.com, as well as www.insidemammoth.com.)