Sixty Lakes and Gardiner Basin Loop July 2022

I solo-hiked a 50 mile loop in the High Sierra, visiting the remote Gardiner Basin as well as the stunningly beautiful Sixty Lakes Basin. I started in Onion Valley, crossed over Kearsarge Pass into Kings Canyon National Park, camped at Charlotte Lake, then climbed over Gardiner Pass roughly following the unmaintained Gardiner Basin Trail, which was tough enough that it took me an extra day. After a terrible bushwhacking experience down in Gardiner Creek, I climbed relentlessly into the austere High Sierra landscape of Gardiner Basin. The next day I climbed up and over Sixty Lakes Col, after which I explored Sixty Lakes Basin from top to bottom, then exited east to the Rae Lakes Basin for the night. To make up the lost day, I followed the John Muir Trail back over Glen Pass, to the Kearsarge Basin, and eventually arrived back at my car. It took me seven days to do it, and I managed to do some fly fishing (catch and release) at a number of lakes along the way. It was a difficult, yet beautiful, trek to a rarely-visited region of the Sierra Nevada.