On Saturday we got up, had breakfast, and headed south for the long and winding road to Mineral King. We turned south onto Mineral King Road near Three Rivers and spent the next hour twisting and turning along the one lane road, ducking in and out of groves of Sequoias with the higher peaks to our west visible now and then.

We got to the trailhead around 12:30 and found the main parking lot for the Franklin Pass Trail full, so we laid out our tarp in a parking spot we found on the side of the road and pulled the car in. Then, we wrapped it up from above with a bunch of rope. There are marmots in this area that have developed a certain taste for the more flavorful parts of a car’s interior – hoses and belts and things, and on occasion they’ll get into the hood of someone’s car and disable it. So, the rangers here recommend you wrap the underside of your car with a tarp to keep the determined rodents out.

We set out along the trail at 12:30 with very heavy packs. I hadn’t taken some of the steps I usually do to keep my backpack weight down and it was about 55 pounds, much more than I’m used to.

A young deer along the trail.

Looking south towards Farewell Gap. After a few flat miles out of the parking lot, the trail started to climb towards Franklin Lakes. We stopped for a lunch break in a shaded section of the trail.

At about four o’clock we reached the lower Franklin Lake and started looking for a place to set up camp. We figured we wouldn’t have the time to get over Franklin Pass today. We found a good campsite not far off the trail on some benches high above the lake.

Florence Peak from our campsite above Lower Franklin Lake.

Sunset light on the peaks.

A group nearby had an especially large fire even though we were well inside of the area where fires are prohibited – they’re only allowed below 9,000’ in elevation west of the Great Western Divide in Sequoia National Park.

A lovely sunset through the forest.