Sabrina Basin

We have been neglecting many wonderful hikes that are close to home.  We realized while eating lunch at Midnight Lake that it had been six years since our last visit.   That seems a bit remiss as it is such a pretty area.  So, we got all crazy and have done several of our local favorites.

Midnight Lake Hike

Bridge's Penstemon

Hybrid columbine

Sierra Columbine

Scarlet Gilia

Rockfringe Willowherb

Midnight Lake

Grass Lake Hike 

We did a quick jaunt up to Grass Lake.  Mainly we wanted to see the monkshood and lilies.  We were too late for the lilies, but the monkshood was prime.

Columbian Monkshood

Bridge's Penstemon

Emerson and the Piute Crags

Little Elephant's Head

Lemmon's Paintbrush

Echo Lake

We hadn't been to Echo Lake in many, many years.  It is a long one and partially off trail.  The on trail portion seems to wind back and forth and rarely heads in the direction of the lake.  I wonder if there is an off trail way to eliminate some of the seemingly pointless sinuous trail.  Something to explore in the future which isn't a bad thing.  It is a lovely area and worth more than a trip every decade.  While the 16 miles and 2500' elevation gain doesn't sound like much, this hike requires an early start and we did spend all day.  Or maybe it was the mission creep, as we did go via Hungry Packer Lake, loads of wildflowers, or fun watching the gray-crowned rosy-finches feeding their just fledged young that slowed us down.  Hard to say why it took so long.

We started as the sun was coming up.

Fireweed.  A sure sign it is autumn.

Hungry Packer Lake.  Yes, we didn't take the direct route to Echo.

Moonlight Lake

The paintbrush and elephant's head were divine.

No idea what this flower is.

Can you find the rosy finch?

Love this conglomerate rock.