Red Peak 11,699’
Sierra Nevada
Total Time: 13:40
Distance: 26.4 miles
Elevation Gain: 9400’
Crux: Class 3
Trailhead: Mono Meadows, full services at Glacier Point
For my first big solo trip back into the Sierras after moving back, I wanted to bag something off Glacier Point Road, as there was plans for it to be closed all of the following season. I had only visited the nearby Clark Range once before, about 6 years prior on a long day hike of Gray Peak. At the time, I had planned to climb Red Peak as well, but lost the will and stamina after finding the cross country particularly tedious given all the deadfall from a recent burn. So I was back to retry the larger summit to the south. Thanks to COVID, I was already at a disadvantage, unable to enter the park until 5 AM thanks to day use permitting. I reached the south entrance station at 5:15, found it dark and empty, and continued on to the Mono Meadows TH off Glacier Point road. By the time I finished the drive up and stopped for the bathroom, it was nearly 6:30, certainly no need for a headlamp this early in the summer. The Mono Meadow trail initially loses several hundred feet of elevation in the first half mile to the meadow, where I was greeted by a swarm of mosquitos and a flooded trail requiring some log hopping to make it across.
The blood thirsty swarm followed me to the sunnier burn area, where I lost them for most of the day and was greeted with a spectacular view of the south face of Half Dome, aglow with early morning light.
The trail continues to descend to Illilouette Creek where I reached the technical crux of the day, the river crossing. On my last visit in August, I was able to stone hop across- no such luck in late June.
I had brought Tevas for the crossing and put them on, wading into the knee deep water to the other side. Passing several trail junctions I continued south, slowly regaining all the elevation I had lost at the start of the day. I kept a fast pace in an effort to work through the easiest miles of the day quickly, and nearly stepped on a huge snake coiled up in the center of the trail.
It paid me no mind as I hiked passed, eventually crossing over Clark Creek. On my previous visited to Gray Peak, I had left the trail here and encountered a tedious amount of deadfall from a previous fire. So I decided to continue on a bit further not leaving the trail until crossing Red Creek and keeping to the right bank for the ascent. This worked beautifully, as the small creek had acted as a fire break with only small burned pockets of trees and deadfall, and overall easy cross country. The grade through the forest was fairly low until breaking 8,000’ when it began to steepen.
As I climbed higher, Red Creek dropped lower and lower into the small canyon that it ran through, and I thought it might be in my best interest to cross it to avoid needing to contour around Grayling Lake. But finding a safe place to cross with such a steep slope was surprisingly difficult, and I followed the creek bed for at least a half mile before finding a suitable place to cross. To avoid some of the shrubs along the creek shore, I climbed up higher along Gray Peak’s western ridge line and had my first good view of Red Peak, finally looking close for the first time all day.
A descending traverse brought me into the upper basin above 9,500’, and I followed a beautiful central moraine up the center with excellent low angle scrambling and cross country on very solid rock. I stopped at an alpine tarn to filter water and continued past Red Lake to the saddle immediately north of Red Peak.
Small patches of snow lingered at the higher elevation, but suncups made any sort of supplemental traction unnecessary. It was shortly before 1 PM when I reached the northern saddle, and I paused for a short break for sunscreen and water, the summit now only 600’ above me.
I was admiring the Minarets and view to the east at the saddle during my break and was a bit surprised when I turned around to look at Red Peak’s north ridge, surprisingly narrow and wildly exposed on the eastern side. I started up and although found the scrambling enjoyable, I was a bit disappointed in how loose the talus was, particularly when I dropped off a bit to the west to avoid some of the more exposed sections. I sent some large boulders shifting down on three separate instances, way to much for 600’ of scrambling. Granted, the southern route is the more standard route up, but I still expected a bit more solid rock for a Yosemite Peak, even in the Clark Range.
The final summit push took nearly and hour, and I dropped into the summit rock ring for a long break. To the east were the Minarets, Ritter and Banner Peaks, as well as the bare summit of Mammoth Mountain. South of Mammoth you could clearly pick out Bloody Mountain and Red Slate, as well as the Abbott group in the distance. Lyell and Forester dominated the view to the northeast, with surprisingly little snow so early in the season. The northwest view had an interesting perspective on Yosemite Falls, the top half perfectly framed by Half Dome and Mount Starr King. I closed my eyes in the warm sun and actually fell asleep for about 15 minutes before a sharp rock digging in my back woke me up. My old age is starting to catch up to me….
While initially I thought of descending via the western ridge of Red Peak, the loose talus on the upper slopes made me decide to descend back the way I came. Aside from knocking a few more rocks down, I made it back to the saddle without incident, and boot skied down some of the patches of snow back to Red Lake.
Hiking the central moraine, I tried to follow the upper creek a bit longer, but ultimately was pushed out at roughly the same elevation as on the ascent. I continued along the opposite shore of the creek, a branch lower down pushing me further north without me fully realizing it. While this was fine at the higher elevations, I hit the highly burned area about one mile from the trail, and had to cut back south through the forest to avoid the worst of it.
Once back on the trail I picked up the pace, pausing just before Illiliouette Creek for a quick snack before the afternoon mosquitos cut my break short. Although I was dreading the uphill finish back to Mono Meadows and the trailhead, it seems my time peakbagging in the Grand Canyon made me mentally and physically prepared for uphill finishes, and I nearly cruised through the final two miles back to the trailhead. I say nearly, as I mistook a large floating piece of bark in Mono Meadows as I tree to hop on to, soaking one boot for the final half mile back to the car. The entire day took under 14 hours for the nearly 27 mile day, including the summit break (/nap). Hitting the road, I hoped to find something reasonable in Oakhurst for dinner, but had to settle for fast food with most of the town shut down by 8 PM on a weekday.r
Great trip report!
Thank you!