We had a great time, but there were a few days that were much longer than we expected!  Our first night we camped at Junction Meadows – about a mile before the junction at a bear box!  A bear came by to visit right after we went to bed. See photos below!

The next day we stayed at Charlotte Lake at the far end, where most of the people camp.  Beautiful site, could have held ten tents, good water access, at the very end of the lake.  We strolled along the end of the lake.  

Day three was the first of three tough ones!  The old trail towards Gardiner Pass was great for the first mile or so, then we lost it on the mountainside going up.  We decided that we couldn’t do two passes in one day, as planned.  And it was a bit threatening to have lightning, so we decided to go for the old Gardiner Basin Trail shown on the map – USGS says “location approximate”, but my map showed it as only 5.8 miles around it, so I figured it would work, and if not, Andy had showed us a way to bail out to Woods Creek to the north.  It was beautiful and easy, going down past lakes and tarns, then a plunge down to the creek, where we spent the night, since it was getting late. 

The next day, four,  we struggled a bit up the other side of the creek, (again steep, with bushes to fight), but then again a lovely stroll up past more lakes and tarns until, around 1pm, we got to the lake we intended to spend the previous night.  That was OK, we were only a half day behind schedule.  We got over the pass west of Sixty Lakes Basin, spent a while figuring out a way down, and got almost down to the first lake in the basin, at 6:30 pm, I think.  Tired, but now close to trails!  

Day five we strolled a few minutes down Sixty Lakes Basin, then we continued on over to Rae Lakes, where we stopped to get water. Great views looking down on Rae Lakes from those switchbacks up to Sixty Lakes Basin.  Lunch at Dollar Lake, got water at Woods Crossing bridge and got to the ford at Upper Paradise Valley at 6:30 pm, where it was tent city!  We talked to somebody who told us about a secret area just north of tent city, and we were the only people staying there, right on the water, and hundreds of feet from everybody else.  Very quiet, but we cleaned up from dinner with our flashlights.

Easy walk out the final day, except that the final two miles are awful trudging along in the sand!

We got bonus points by running into the ranger the morning after the bear visited, and the bear team was 100 yards away, trying to figure out how to harass the bear a bit and where he could be.  So they were pretty excited to get a report of the previous night, with the exact location, time, and great photos.  It was worth it to lose my “bowl” (Ziploc brand 2 cup container with lid), since the bear crunched down on it when he smelled it and wanted to check it out, even though it was “clean” by backcountry standards.  That was what alerted Jerry that somebody was in camp (I slept through it, and Keith thought it was limbs falling down near his tent!)

Good trip, but three long days in the middle! You would not have enjoyed the long days in Gardiner Basin and we had to hurry through the rest of it.  Painted Lady and Rae Lakes were stunning, although not perfect light for photos.