Saturday September 13, 21.8mi/35.1km

Palisade Creek (x/8030ft) to Evolution Creek (x/9480ft) (CA)

The day started off Sunny but cold, I eagerly awaited the moment when the sun would hit the valley bottom.

The nice thing about early morning hiking is seeing all the wildlife. This deer didn’t seem to care at all that I was hiking within 20 feet.

And I saw some very fresh bear tracks, so woke me up a bit.

I followed the Middle Fork Kings River all morning, I think this was in Little Pete Meadow.

The river had this fog on it, I’m pretty sure the water is warmer than the air.

Finally the sun hit the valley bottom and it was gloriously warm.

It’s hard to tell from the photo but I hiked along this cool little slab waterfall.

Up higher, the trees disappeared and I no longer had shade, but it was cooler at 10,000 ft, so the perfect temperature balance.

I passed by Helen Lake, the last lake before Muir Pass. The first time I was up here in 2015, I had no idea this lake existed as it was under considerable snow.

The classic John Muir stone hut, on top of Muir Pass.

I was curious and had to investigate the inside of the hut, it looked pretty much the same as it did the previous couple times I’ve been here.

Though it did have a new item, in addition to a hiker register, it also had a confessional book.

I had a nice long lunch outside the hut in the Sun, and had a little yard sale and dried my gear from the overnight dampness. It was probably my warmest visit to Muir Pass, the previous times it was either cloudy or cold. I said goodbye to the hut and descended down to the Evolution Basin Lakes.

Wanda Lake was the biggest one, it even had some little rocky islands.

Sapphire Lake was smaller, but I appreciated the nice crossing of its outlet.

I forgot to get photos of Evolution Lake, and after that I dropped way down into the nice wooded Evolution Creek valley. In the last couple hours of the day I probably saw over 40 hikers, all hiking the opposite direction and aiming to get up the climb to Evolution Lake. That’s going to be a crowded lake! A few of them also mentioned how smoky it had been the last couple of days, but I guess I have lucky timing as there was no wildfire smoke today. I was fortunate to camp alone in a nice quiet spot under some trees near Evolution Creek.

It was a pretty easy day, cruising on the JMT/ PCT all day, tomorrow I’ll finish my little detour and link back up with the HST route.