Looking down towards Hamilton Lakes the next morning. I thought the light was a bit prettier in the evening, but it was still beautiful.

With three days remaining in our trip, it was time to start heading back for Mineral King. While we could have looped back by heading west and then south over Timber Gap, we weren’t particularly excited for what was likely to be much walking through the forest. So we decided to head back over Kaweah Gap, down Big Arroyo, past Little Five and Big Five Lakes and over Sawtooth Pass to Mineral King. That route presented more opportunity for climbing mountains too.

Eagle Scout Peak from Kaweah Gap in the morning.

Black Kaweah high above Big Arroyo. There were many High Sierra Trail hikers headed mostly east, but other than that nothing too exciting.

The Kaweahs from near Little Five Lakes. It was brutally hot on the mid-afternoon climb from Big Arroyo towards Little Five Lakes. We stopped for lunch at the upper Little Five Lakes before continuing on.

Some very old graffiti carved into a tree along the trail, the date is some time in the 1920s, so almost 100 years ago!

We got to Big Five Lakes under threatening skies about six hours after leaving Precipice Lake. We chose an obviously impacted campsite near Lake 9830 and went about setting up.

The trail near camp.

A thunderstorm far to the north. We heard the thunder now and then but were otherwise unaffected.

In the later afternoon, the backcountry ranger stationed at Little Five Lakes came through. After some back-and-forth we asked about the distressed party from several days earlier. He said they had hiked as far down Big Arroyo as they could, but the kid didn’t improve and had to be helicoptered out to a hospital. Not the ending we expected, but at least they had managed to make contact and arrange a rescue.

We enjoyed another late afternoon / early evening at a beautiful alpine lake with lovely mountain views.