We stayed in Visalia Wednesday night and drove to Mineral King Thursday morning. I had been up there for a quick look in 2006, but we were committed to most of a day this time because 7 miles of the road is closed for repairs 10AM-4PM weekdays. We were escorted one way at 9:25AM after about a 15 minute wait.
More construction material:
In several areas metal drains were being installed to divert rain runoff.
About 10:30 we stopped at the ranger station, which had this 3-D model of Mineral King.
Up is east. The solid red outline is about where the Disney ski terrain would have been with the dotted line being its valley floor village at 7,800 feet. The peaks along the Great Western Divide at the top are over 12,000 while those at the top of the north facing ski terrain are up to 11,700. Lift served vertical was supposed to be 3,700.
For those who want to read the details about the proposed resort and its demise:
https://mouseplanet.com/the-story-of-mineral-king/7014/
https://www.peakrankings.com/content/why-disneys-attempt-at-a-ski-resort-failed
Walt Disney had seen Zermatt and was obviously enamored as evidenced by the Matterhorn ride he built at Disneyland. Zermatt is a carless village, so he planned to replicate that model at Mineral King. That road is very difficult, a 1.5 hour drive over just 25 miles even without construction, and the proposed cog railway would have been quite a project, passing past some sequoia groves.
Near the trailheads were these strangely tarped cars.
Overnight campers are warned to do this in early summer because marmots will chew wires and hoses in car engine compartments.
Here’s the sign at the Sawtooth trailhead.
I’ve highlighted in red where we hiked.
A couple of hundred feet up we get a good view of the flat valley bottom where Disney planned his ski village.
Soon we turned east to head up Monarch Creek.
We reached Groundhog Meadow 8,700 feet, with this impressive view of Monarch Creek cascading through 1,500 vertical of rocks.
I thought there would be switchbacks going up the open face at left above but saw none.
I got out the map and saw that the trail crossed Monarch Creek here.
The creek may not look like much in that pic, but it was about 8 feet across and flowing swiftly, clearly unsafe in bare feet. There is no question the flow would surge over our ankles and soak our feet from above even though my hiking boots are waterproof. Liz’ boots are old with a couple of holes so her feet would have been saturated.
The other issue is that we could not see the trail in these trees.
The treed switchbacks are north facing and would be snowbound before the top of that pitch at 10,200 feet.
So we retreated to the trail fork at 8,300 and headed for Timber Gap. Zoomed view south to Farewell Gap 10,588 feet.
The other side is the Little Kern River, still separated from the main Kern by the 12,000 foot Great Western Divide. The upper Kern drainage is accessible only to the most hard core hikers. Our trail head is the closest road access, and the hike is still 7 miles and a 3,800 vertical climb to 11,630 at Sawtooth Pass. The lowest pass at Kaweah Gap is 10,700 but it’s 16 miles and 4,000 vertical from the Crescent Meadow trailhead near Giant Forest. My next door neighbor Clay 6x backpacked a week from Sequoia across the upper Kern drainage to Mt. Whitney, ending at Whitney Portal, the last time at age 69. Clay died in 2013 at age 93.
We climbed through forest for awhile.
Mineral King has only been open since Memorial weekend. Liz and I saw not one other person in the nearly 6 hours we were on the trails. We are about 9,000 feet here and I’m annoyingly much slower than a few years ago.
For about half a mile the trail opens up, crossing a stream here.
View up that stream to a snow patch:
View ahead to some colorful rocks:
Our trail goes into the dense forest ahead.
Once we reach Timber Gap 9,450 feet, the ground is about half snow covered.
Trees obscure much of the view into the Middle Fork Kaweah drainage.
On the way down we get the best views of the proposed ski area. Base area meadow and alpine bowls directly above:
But one of the old documents shows the alpine bowls stretching farther west as well.
Lower down Liz navigates a slide path.
Finally we get a view west downstream of the East Fork Kaweah.
We stopped briefly at Silver City, where there is a restaurant and lodging.
Cell service?
Fuhgeddaboudit!
Historic cabins with no electricity and a short walk to communal baths are $200/night. If you want electricity and a private bath that will be $700. The lodging is limited and sells out on weekends and also midweek when the schools are on summer vacation.
I do not think these were sequoias at Silver City 7,000 feet.
But we saw several in 6,000-6,500 elevation range.
By 7:45 we made it to Braised Kitchen in Tulare, recommended by our Visit Visalia hosts.
One of them, Sherrie Bakke, was there at the same time!
With her was Paso Robles winemaker Julie Airoso-Locke, who provided wine at the Monday OWAC dinner.
More construction material:
In several areas metal drains were being installed to divert rain runoff.
About 10:30 we stopped at the ranger station, which had this 3-D model of Mineral King.
Up is east. The solid red outline is about where the Disney ski terrain would have been with the dotted line being its valley floor village at 7,800 feet. The peaks along the Great Western Divide at the top are over 12,000 while those at the top of the north facing ski terrain are up to 11,700. Lift served vertical was supposed to be 3,700.
For those who want to read the details about the proposed resort and its demise:
https://mouseplanet.com/the-story-of-mineral-king/7014/
https://www.peakrankings.com/content/why-disneys-attempt-at-a-ski-resort-failed
Walt Disney had seen Zermatt and was obviously enamored as evidenced by the Matterhorn ride he built at Disneyland. Zermatt is a carless village, so he planned to replicate that model at Mineral King. That road is very difficult, a 1.5 hour drive over just 25 miles even without construction, and the proposed cog railway would have been quite a project, passing past some sequoia groves.
Near the trailheads were these strangely tarped cars.
Overnight campers are warned to do this in early summer because marmots will chew wires and hoses in car engine compartments.
Here’s the sign at the Sawtooth trailhead.
I’ve highlighted in red where we hiked.
A couple of hundred feet up we get a good view of the flat valley bottom where Disney planned his ski village.
Soon we turned east to head up Monarch Creek.
We reached Groundhog Meadow 8,700 feet, with this impressive view of Monarch Creek cascading through 1,500 vertical of rocks.
I thought there would be switchbacks going up the open face at left above but saw none.
I got out the map and saw that the trail crossed Monarch Creek here.
The creek may not look like much in that pic, but it was about 8 feet across and flowing swiftly, clearly unsafe in bare feet. There is no question the flow would surge over our ankles and soak our feet from above even though my hiking boots are waterproof. Liz’ boots are old with a couple of holes so her feet would have been saturated.
The other issue is that we could not see the trail in these trees.
The treed switchbacks are north facing and would be snowbound before the top of that pitch at 10,200 feet.
So we retreated to the trail fork at 8,300 and headed for Timber Gap. Zoomed view south to Farewell Gap 10,588 feet.
The other side is the Little Kern River, still separated from the main Kern by the 12,000 foot Great Western Divide. The upper Kern drainage is accessible only to the most hard core hikers. Our trail head is the closest road access, and the hike is still 7 miles and a 3,800 vertical climb to 11,630 at Sawtooth Pass. The lowest pass at Kaweah Gap is 10,700 but it’s 16 miles and 4,000 vertical from the Crescent Meadow trailhead near Giant Forest. My next door neighbor Clay 6x backpacked a week from Sequoia across the upper Kern drainage to Mt. Whitney, ending at Whitney Portal, the last time at age 69. Clay died in 2013 at age 93.
We climbed through forest for awhile.
Mineral King has only been open since Memorial weekend. Liz and I saw not one other person in the nearly 6 hours we were on the trails. We are about 9,000 feet here and I’m annoyingly much slower than a few years ago.
For about half a mile the trail opens up, crossing a stream here.
View up that stream to a snow patch:
View ahead to some colorful rocks:
Our trail goes into the dense forest ahead.
Once we reach Timber Gap 9,450 feet, the ground is about half snow covered.
Trees obscure much of the view into the Middle Fork Kaweah drainage.
On the way down we get the best views of the proposed ski area. Base area meadow and alpine bowls directly above:
But one of the old documents shows the alpine bowls stretching farther west as well.
Lower down Liz navigates a slide path.
Finally we get a view west downstream of the East Fork Kaweah.
We stopped briefly at Silver City, where there is a restaurant and lodging.
Cell service?
Fuhgeddaboudit!
Historic cabins with no electricity and a short walk to communal baths are $200/night. If you want electricity and a private bath that will be $700. The lodging is limited and sells out on weekends and also midweek when the schools are on summer vacation.
I do not think these were sequoias at Silver City 7,000 feet.
But we saw several in 6,000-6,500 elevation range.
By 7:45 we made it to Braised Kitchen in Tulare, recommended by our Visit Visalia hosts.
One of them, Sherrie Bakke, was there at the same time!
With her was Paso Robles winemaker Julie Airoso-Locke, who provided wine at the Monday OWAC dinner.
