Hike on South Fork Kaweah

[lambertiana]

I took a short hike with my son on the south fork of the Kaweah River, at the very southern edge of Sequoia NP.

The first part of the trail is in the lower elevation oak woodlands, so it is mostly live oak and scrub oak.

We could look at the snow on the upper part of the opposite canyon wall:

And after a while we could see Homer's Nose, a granite dome that is on my list of things I want to stand on top of:

 

[lambertiana]

Right by Ladybug is a nice waterfall:

And here is a shot of my son sitting on the lip of the falls:

We went a little past the confluence of the middle fork Kaweah and Garfield Creek, where we had lunch by this cascade with a great swimming hole (wide and deep, with smooth bedrock bottom):

For those of you who like interesting rocks, there are bands of marble here. I found this nice chunk of marble at the edge of the Kaweah, but I decided to leave it there:

And for the obligatory knife content, the top two are my son's, and the bottom three are what I carried:

 

[lambertiana]

And the only real wildlife with which we interacted - a small creek that we crossed had a bunch of orange salamanders in it.

 

[Brian Jones]

lambertiana,

Awesome, awesome pics! And beautiful country! Do you live pretty close to there? Thank you for sharing. :thumbup:

 

[mtnfolk mike]

great pics lambertiana...:thumbup: that is a gorgeous area... i haven't been out that way in years...

 

[lambertiana]

lambertiana,

Awesome, awesome pics! And beautiful country! Do you live pretty close to there? Thank you for sharing. :thumbup:

It is 45 miles from my house to the trailhead. I can see Homer's Nose from my house, as well as the higher peaks behind it on the Great Western Divide and the Kaweah peaks. I live at 300' above sea level, and can look at peaks up to 13,802' from my house. The front range at Denver has a 9000' vertical from the city, and I have a 13,500' vertical here. And when you summit one of the peaks on the Great Western Divide, you can look across to the eastern edge of the Sierras, crowned by Mt Whitney (14,505').

That is one of the things that I really like about living here - I am within easy striking distance of many great trailheads in the Sierras. I've got two good trips planned for this summer, one an easy six days and the other a more challenging eight day trip.

This time of year I start up the hiking season on the lower elevation trails, like the south fork. As the snow melts higher, I go higher. This is a normal snow year, so the high elevation trails should be pretty much clear of snow by early July.

 

[bearthedog]

Awsome is an understatment. Try really awsome.
Seriously good scenery good pictures.

 

[tknife]

Great pics of a fantastic area!