Kaiser Peak 10,320’
Sierra Nevada
Total Time: 5:30
Distance: 10.8 miles
Elevation Gain: 3700’
Crux: Class 1
Trailhead: Kaiser Peak trail, full services at Huntington Lake
Companions: Holly
Kaiser Peak is a prominent summit that sits above Huntington Lake in the western Sierra Nevada. I had climbed it as a snowshoe five years ago and remembered at the time thinking it was worth a repeat, the views from the summit bein truly 360°. Holly and I were looking for one last acclimatization hike before our John Muir Trail trip, and I suggested this as a good option: not overly exhausting or technical, but still getting us at a reasonable altitude. Since the hike was only about 10 miles, we did not rush to get up early, reaching the trail head at about 9:30 AM. The trail head parking is about 200 yards before the trail head itself, requiring a short hike through a pack station before reaching the trail head proper. The lower portions of the trail were mostly in trees, and we hiked up mostly gentle switchbacks through the pines.
The terrain was more bouldery than I remembered, with large granite slabs stretching up a sub canyon on the south eastern flank of Kaiser Peak. About 2 miles into the hike, the pines begin to thin and we had our first view of Huntington lake below, as well as China Peak ski resort across the lake.
We enjoyed the views of the lake as we climbed higher, the route entering a more meadow like valley about 1.5 miles from the summit.
Although I knew we still had only 1 mile and 1000 feet of elevation gain to go, the end of the hike is deceptively long, with numerous false summits and ridgelines along the way. The last bit of hiking to the top is through completely barren alpine grasses, with the smallest scraggly trees hanging on for survival. We passed a group of three hikers on their descent just as we were below the summit, giving us the high point all to ourselves.
We reached the summit shortly before 1 PM and had a late lunch with fantastic views to the north of Yosemite National Park, the north east to the Mammoth Mountain and Mount Ritter, Bloody Mountain and Silver Peak to the east (which I had just climbed two days before) and the high peaks of the Sierra sweeping to the south. I used an app to identify which peaks we could see to the south and was surprised to find that Mount Whitney was actually one of the summits in view, although not very easily.
Similar to my hike up Silver Peak, the innocent clouds that had been building were beginning to turn to rain, although the closest pocket that we could see was much further south near Lake Florence. Still, we did not want to push our luck and started back down the trail to get beneath the tree line.
Sure enough, the rain clouds increased once we were in the safety of the trees, although again we stayed dry all day. The hike back down was relatively uneventful, with the same views of Huntington lake below, a number of motor boats and sailboats trying to stay out as long as they could before the rain overtook them. We finished the hike in the mid afternoon, a bit too early for dinner in Shaver Lake and headed back home to rest before our big trip on the John Muir Trail.