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| View Back at Approach to Mono Pass |
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| Switchbacks |
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| Ruby Lake Panorama |
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| Getting Ready at Mosquito Flat Trailhead |
Mono Pass is a very nice photogenic climb in the John Muir Wilderness of the Eastern Sierras. On the way to the pass, there is a short trail out to Ruby Lake, a large glacier-filled lake with scenic mountains in the background. The hike begins at the Mosquito Flat Trailhead at the end of Rock Creek Road out of Tom's Place on Highway 395 in California. This is where eleven hikers of the Around the Bend Friends gathered for the first hike of a five day excursion. On the day after Labor Day, we got to the parking lot around 8am and had several parking spaces to choose from. The beginning of the hike shares its trail with the Little Lakes Valley Trail which we would explore the next day.
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| Rock Creek |
The first section of the trail has a few steps built by the CCC as it gradually gains a little elevation.
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| Little Lakes Valley / Mono Pass Junction |
When the trail flattens out a bit, look for the Mono Pass trail to fork off to the right as seen in the photo above.
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| Bear Creek Spire, Mounts Julius Caesar, Abbot, and Gabb |
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| View Check |
As soon as the trail begins its few initial switchbacks, the view of the mountains at the head of the valley appears. With each turn, the same view changes slightly. The terrain is covered with granite boulders but the trail is dirt. There are a couple of places where a spring or stream flows across or down the trail but the water is very shallow even now when there has been so much rain. Perhaps at another time, this area would have been dry.
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| View up Little Lakes Valley Below |
As we gained a little elevation, we passed a reflective alpine pond and passed another trail side lake with a large creek running through it.
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| Alpine Pond Reflection |
A little wooden bridge laid across the creek.
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| Spring covers Trail |
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| Heading out to Ruby Lake |
The trail junction sign to Ruby Lake points to the left just before the Mono Pass Trail heads uphill again. We headed out to Ruby Lake along the beautiful creek. There is a small waterfall area and another small lake that we hiked around on the right, then another curve brought us right to the large Ruby Lake at the foot of granite mountains as seen in the third photo above. We stayed here a moment to get some nice photos.
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| Passing Waterfall |
The mountains seen in the distance were Mt. Abbot and Mt. Mills.
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| Fireweed along Stream |
The weather was very pleasant with cloud cover and a little blue sky. However, 40% chance of rain after 11am was predicted.
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| Approach to Ruby Lake |
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| Ruby Lake (Mt. Abbot & Mt. Mills) |
We enjoyed the lake then turned around to retrace our steps back to the Mono Pass Trail where we turned left to go up. Now, the real switchbacks began. There were several but the slope was gradual. Ruby Lake came into view below as the trail went up and up. One of the eleven hikers had gone ahead and took a photo of our group from above. We were a strong group of hikers who were enjoying the hike immensely!
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| Returning to Mono Pass Trail |
As we neared the top of the switchbacks, clouds began covering the sky.
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| Ruby Lake from Switchbacks Above |
Finally at the top of the switchbacks, we came to a corner passing around a ridge.
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| AtBF on the Move |
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| Approach to Trail Corner |
At the corner, there was a small area where it was easy to take in the overlook view. We stopped here for photos and water. We could also see where the trail heads around the corner and up but the pass was still out of view range. We were out of the trees and there were boulders all around. Still the trail was apparent. After our pause, we began more climbing through the dirt and rocks. At last, the top of the saddle came into view but there was still more climbing to do.
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| Corner Overlook View |
An honorable mention at this point is doggo Oakley! She was fitted with a GPS collar and was on her own with her dad following way behind.
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| Rounding Corner up to Mono Pass |
She was having so much fun and then another two or three dogs arrived at the pass with us.
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| Starting up from Corner |
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| Last Climb |
As we climbed, we had to hike over a small amount of packed snow and then up through some boulders. A couple of hikers in the group stayed in the snow preferring the "easier" footing. The top of the pass saddle was snow free on the trail and empty of obstacles. We hiked over the pass a few feet and sat for our break at some large boulders just below. On the other side of the pass, about a half mile below, we saw Summit Lake lying in the flattish terrain.
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| Approaching Pass |
One hiker climbed up onto a nearby ridge to see what he could see. His photo is six photos below.
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| Trail along Bacteria-filled Snow |
While we sat, a resupply pack train came ambling by to go down the other side.
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| On Mono Pass |
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| Pack Team passes By |
We tried to get the wranglers to drop off some food but they declined! We all put on our light jackets because of the chilly breeze. After a pretty good break, we started back down. As we were still making our way back to the ridge corner, another pack train came up behind us. Busy day! At this point, the clouds began looking a bit more threatening and there was a report of a raindrop or two. We didn't speed up much but we did continue steadily down the trail except for a short stop to take off those light jackets. Nevertheless, that camera kept jumping into our hands!
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| Snack Rocks just over Pass |
Down the switchbacks, we passed a lot of hikers coming up. There were also a few hikers mixing in with us on the way down.
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| Summit Lake on other side of Mono Pass |
Yep! The doggos were there, too. Such happy dogs!
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| Fourth Recess Lake over Pass Ridge |
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| Starting Descent from Mono Pass |
At the Ruby Lake Trail junction, there were a couple more raindrops felt and, from there, very light sprinkles started on and off. There was no thunder. The remaining part of the trail was filled with those steps and, at our rate, the hike began feeling like an obstacle course going here and there and up and down. We passed the Little Lakes Valley Trail junction then hiked along Rock Creek to the cars. Beautiful hike on a pleasant slope. Not too easy and not too hard. Just right!
8 miles; 1900 feet elevation gain; 5 hours
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| Another Pack Team follows us Down |
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| One more Flower Photo |
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| David leads the Group Down the Switchbacks |
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