Sabrina Basin High Country Backpacking

 

Blue Heaven Lake

We've hiked the Sabrina Basin for years, dozens of hikes all over this huge expanse of mountains, canyons and lakes. But it's so large that many of the upper reaches are barely attainable in a single day. And then there are a number of lake chains and side canyons on the west side that require some difficult approaches that we had never done. With a few days of food in our packs it was time to go bag all of these lakes. We started out on day one following the established trails up to Midnight Lake, a distance of about 5.5 miles. Then we departed the trail, and left the crowds behind with a cross-country ascent to Blue Heaven Lake at the base of the east face of Mt. Darwin, at 11,600 feet elevation. Good enough for one day.

Sabrina Basin from just above Lake Sabrina

A beautiful Sierra Columbine

Sierra Columbine

Blue Lake, a popular day hiking destination

The stream crossing just above Dingleberry Lake

Getting higher into the basin

Midnight Lake. Our final destination for the day, Blue Heaven Lake, is at
the top of the ridge at the back right edge of the lake

Sierra Primrose

Blue Heaven Lake, and the east face of Mt. Darwin

Looking back down toward Midnight Lake

Dwarf Phlox

The full moon rises

Day 2 was a tricky one. We needed to climb above Blue Heaven Lake and tag the unnamed tarns and ponds below Darwin Col. Then we backtracked and descend through Hell Diver Lakes almost back down to the main canyon before ascending again to another side canyon and many more lake chains. With lots of talus hoping and class 2 scrambling, it was a long day. It took us the better part of 11 hours to manage about 6 miles. Tough...

Blue Heaven Lake at sunrise

Working our way through the talus along Blue Heaven Lake

More talus, lots more talus

Darwin Col (the notch) and a still frozen tarn

The largest of the small lakes below Darwin Col

Lewisia

Looking back down at Blue Heaven Lake as we descend

High Mountain Hulsea (Alpine Gold)

High Mountain Hulsea (Alpine Gold)

Working our way down the Hell Diver Lakes

One of the Hell Diver Lakes

Bottleneck Lake, our second camp spot

Day 3 was another busy one. We would ascend and descend the two remaining side canyons, tag all the lakes, then finish back at our camp at Bottleneck Lake. Doing it this way allowed us to do the difficult climbing without our camping gear, using our backpacks just to carry food and a few other items. It was another big day of hiking, with many thousands of feet of elevation gain and descent, but only a bit over 6 miles of travel. And we spent over 10 hours doing it. 

As we leave camp, looking down at Fishgut Lakes

Brewer's Mountainheath

One of the Fishgut Lakes

Tiling's Monkeyflower

Making our way up the intense talus from Fishgut to Granite Lake

It was like this all day...

Granite Lake

The view back down canyon

Some really big talus to navigate as we make our way toward our next canyon

A lovely afternoon in the Sierra

Nuttall's Linanthus

Large Red Indian Paintbrush

Lemmon's Paintbrush

War wounds. That talus can be a might unfriendly

Second climb of the day, to Schober Lakes. Looking back down canyon you can
see all the way to the Owens Valley (over 7,000 feet lower) and White Mountains

Schober Lakes

Schober Lakes

Schober Lakes

Schober Lakes

Schober Lakes

Schober Lakes

Alpine Aster

Climbing back down through the Schober Lakes. The terrain isn't much easier

Little Elephant's Head. Look closely at the individual flowers
and you can see the elephant's trunk, ears, and eyes.

Getting closer to camp

Our final day wasn't too difficult. After a cross-country descent from Bottleneck Lake we picked up the regular trail and knocked out the final 4+ miles to the trailhead. We probably pushed this itinerary a little, but as it turned out it worked. The next day started a week of severe afternoon thunderstorms, and we certainly were happy to miss that.

Sunrise over Bottleneck Lake

Descending back down to the main canyon, and out

Fireweed