Cowboy camping beneath morning alpenglow at Lake Reflection.

We slept in as the sun crept into Lake Reflection’s deep bowl, then rose and spent some time taking pictures.

Morning light on Mount Jordan and Mount Genevra.

A couple of shots from the lake outlet. If you look closely, you can see the other groups on the peninsula, which is not obvious from this angle.

Ascending through the forest south of Lake Reflection.

We had to plan our crossing of the King’s Kern Divide from Lake Reflection. There are three options: Harrison Pass is easiest (class 2) but was also the longest, requiring a drop back towards East Lake before ascending bowls towards Mount Stanford; Lucy’s Foot Pass required the same detour, but was a little bit more technical, Milly’s Foot Pass was the most direct, but supposed to be a bit difficult (class 3) at the top. As usual, Secor provides an excellent overview of each. I also stopped to chat to the other party at Lake Reflection, one of whom I had indeed recognized, he was the Charlotte Lake ranger who I had run into on my JMT hike. He explained that they intended to cross Milly’s Foot Pass, which he had done many years ago. He said it wasn’t bad, just a bit loose at the top.

We opted for Milly’s, knowing that we could always turn around if we encountered anything too sketchy.

Looking back over tarns and East Lake from high in the talus bowl towards Milly’s Foot Pass.

Talus slogging. From below, the top of this bowl seems to be an unbroken 100-foot wall of rock. But near the top, a notch appears that was previously obscured.

Looking up the notch.

Looking through the notch at the north face of Mount Jordan.

Shannon scrambling up the last 100 feet of solid class 3 to the top of Milly’s Foot Pass. We didn’t find this pass especially difficult. The talus slog lower down was worse than the crux at the top, which was actually kind of fun.

Looking east from the top of Milly’s Foot Pass over the upper Kern River Basin.

Looking down the Kern River Canyon. This canyon runs about 25 uninterrupted miles straight south from the upper headwaters.

Some lovely lakes on a bench overlooking the Great Western Divide.

Climbing towards Lake South America.

Our original plan for the day was to get as close to Shepherd Pass as possible, setting us up for Mount Tyndall and Mount Williamson the next day. But we were both so impressed by the scenery in the Upper Kern Basin that we decided to call it a bit early and roll out our sleeping bag on a bench overlooking the peaks of the Great Western Divide.

Evening light on Mount Ericsson.

Another beautiful spot for a night under the stars!