After sorting out our food and packing up our things, we headed down to the Mammoth Ranger station around 10 to pick up our permit. We didn’t run into any issues getting the one we wanted out of Devil’s Postpile. I also picked up a book to read: Shattered Air which I recently finished and really enjoyed. If you’re into search and rescue stories, I would recommend it.

We headed up to the Mammoth Mountain base camp area, bought our shuttle tickets, and rode the bus down to Devil’s Postpile. It was a nice day and we caught the bus around 11 AM, so it was pretty busy with families heading out on hikes.

I didn’t take many pictures on the hike from Devil’s Postpile up to Minaret Lake because the light was pretty bad and it was hot. The mosquitoes weren’t terrible during the heat of the day, but they were definitely around.

We saw cumulus clouds forming over the desert. They started to consolidate into cumulonimbus as the afternoon wore on. Fortunately, we had blue skies all around, so the clouds only served as added scenery in the distance.

We made it to Minaret Lake around 3:30 and checked out the north side of the peninsula that nearly divides the lake in half. I was hoping there would be a nice campsite somewhere on this peninsula, but it was a bit too steep and rocky. Instead we camped in between the lake and the little pond to the north.

After resting for an hour or two, we headed out to climb the Volcanic Ridge, a small peak near the Minarets that divides the Ediza Creek and Minaret Creek drainages. I chose this climb because the view of the Minarets from the summit is supposed to be fantastic. We tried to time our summit with the start of the golden hour, just as the sun was setting behind the ridge to our west.

Sierra Primrose on our way up the gully on the south side of Volcanic Ridge.

Dad climbing the screen in the gully with Clyde Minaret in the background. The route up Volcanic Ridge was pretty straightforward: climb the south facing gully directly north of Minaret Lake to its high point, a saddle east of the true summit, then scramble up the talus to the apparent high point. Both the scree in the gully and the talus near the top were somewhat loose, so it was a bit slow going.

Sunset looking back east over Mammoth Mountain. I believe the tall peak to the right is Mount Abbot, but I haven’t confirmed that.

The views from the summit were phenomenal, and our choice to summit late (about 7 o’clock) treated us to a fantastic sunset over the Minarets.

Just after the sun dropped below Mount Ritter (the high point just left of center) and Banner Peak (center). You can just see the west tip of Thousand Island Lake peaking out to the right.

We left the summit around 8 o’clock and headed back down. It was getting dark, but we didn’t need to break out the headlamps on the descent. When the route entered the marshy drainage near the bottom, the mosquitoes were swarming and I donned my headnet. Fortunately, by the time we got back to camp around 8:45, they started to disappear, so we didn’t get too chewed up while cooking and eating.