Thousand Island Lake Loop

<-Tinker Knob

Big Pine Lakes->

The Hike: From the shaded trailhead, the trail quickly crosses a spring and begins a series of switchbacks to the northeast. The trees are left behind and the top of this set of switchbacks is reached at ~0.65 miles. The High Trail continues to climb to the northwest over a series of springs thick with vegetation and wildflowers. The trail passes in and out of some stands of sparse trees before reaching a side-trail at ~2.75 miles. If you follow this trail (~0.15 miles round-trip to lower viewpoint), you'll come upon a fantastic viewpoint of the Ritter Range, Shadow Lake, and Shadow Lake Falls to the southwest. To the southeast, you can look down the canyon toward Mammoth Mountain and the peaks beyond. There are two rock platforms to look around from, the lower of the two having slightly more open views. However, you don't need to follow this use-trail to get these views unless you want to see Rosalie Falls. Continuing on the trail, you'll come upon four more places to check out the incredible vistas. Some viewpoints have more trees blocking the views than others, but all are good. At one viewpoint, you will find a beautiful root ball sticking out of the ground from a fallen tree that makes for great photo opportunities. The last viewpoint is passed at ~2.95 miles. After this, the trail opens up to offer more superb views. The views from this section of the trail are truly spectacular and may be the best that we've seen in the Sierras. The Ritter Range is at its best here with Shadow Lake perfectly centered below. More of the Minarets are visible as you move up the trail. A couple more seeps are crossed as the trail continues to climb before passing over another series of seeps. At ~3.8 miles the trail reaches another set of switchbacks, but this time it descends near some small stands of aspen. Here is probably the best view down canyon. After descending through another pair of switchbacks, the trail begins to climb again and passes through some seeps surrounded by thick vegetation above and below the trail for hundreds of feet. After passing through these, there is a short side-trail leading to the south-southwest to a viewpoint of Mt Ritter and Banner Peak over the Garnet Lake basin (not visible) and a small section of Garnet Lake Falls. Rodgers Peak and Mt Lyell (Yosemite's tallest peak) are also visible. A little further up the trail is another place to leave it briefly to the southwest for probably the best view of Garnet Lake Falls--look for it just as the trail enters into a decent-sized stand of trees. At ~5.45 miles the trail leading up to Summit Lake splits off to the right. Stay left and begin to descend as the trail leaves the trees for bushes and then trees again. The trail then climbs again and at ~6.15 miles another trail leading up to Summit Lake is reached. Stay left and continue to climb in mostly shade to the west-northwest. At ~6.35 miles the first side-trail to the largest Badger Lake is reached (branching off to the left). Its sibling is reached at ~6.5 miles. Stay straight at both of these junctions and pass by the last few Badger Lakes just off of the trail to the north and south. The trail then turns to the north-northwest to climb and meet the trail coming down from the Clark Lakes to the northeast (~6.75 miles). Stay straight/left and head west again before slightly descending to meet the River Trail coming in from the south (~7.05 miles). Stay straight again and follow the trail as it turns to the northwest and begins to climb more steeply before leveling out and turning to the southwest to leave the trees. The trail skirts a little pond before coming upon the outlet from Thousand Island Lake (Middle Fork San Joaquin River). Here is a fantastic view of Banner Peak to the southwest. Continuing on the trail, the views open up above a few more ponds just before reaching Thousand Island Lake. The John Muir Trail is reached at ~8.0 miles at the eastern end of Thousand Island Lake. Banner Peak and Mt Davis tower over the lake to the southwest and west. There aren't nearly 1,000 islands in the lake but there are probably around 100. I've seen a few accounts that say the western end of the lake is really nice, but I didn't have the time to check it out on this occasion. Instead, I followed the JMT to southeast, crossed the outlet on the footbridge (another nice view over the lake), and left the JMT (~8.2 miles) on a use-trail to explore a peninsula on the south side of the lake. I followed the use-trail for a little while before branching off to a large peninsula with a meandering inlet. Part of the western end of the peninsula was flooded, so I walked around to the northwest tip and took a break to rehydrate and get some food. The view from this spot was perfect.

I sat and watched the clouds move in before moving on. I rejoined the JMT (~9.0 miles), turned right, and headed toward Emerald Lake. Some snow can linger on the trail between the lakes. At one point in particular, you can inexplicably wander onto a side-trail that leads to Emerald Lake to the east-southeast instead of switchbacking your way up to the southeast. The JMT traverses above Emerald Lake at ~9.2 miles before passing its southern shore to climb up toward Ruby Lake which it reaches at ~9.6 miles. Some more snow can linger between these lakes as well. Neither of these lakes really compete with Thousand Island or Garnet, but they could offer some respite from all the backpackers at Thousand Island later in the summer and I saw some fish cruising near their shores when I passed. The JMT descends to cross Ruby Lake's outlet before switchbacking up to the high point of this hike. Here is another place where snow can linger. At the high point (~10.1 miles) is the first glimpse of Garnet Lake. This is a full-length view of the lake with Mt Ritter and Banner Peak towering over the western end. Garnet Lake has its own share of islands but far fewer than Thousand Island Lake. The JMT zig-zags its way down toward the lake and reaches a junction with a side-trail leaving to the west (right) at ~10.5 miles. This trail leads down to the northern shore near the middle of the lake and further west. The JMT continues winding its way down to the south and southeast. At one particularly tight set of switchbacks is a great view over the lake. Just beyond this is a nice place to leave the trail (~10.7 miles) to the west and sit on the edge of a relatively flat table of rocks to enjoy the views to the west (~300' round-trip). After this, the JMT turns to the east just above the lake. Here (~10.9 miles) is a very large boulder to the south that offers more great views over the lake. Earlier in the season, if you look over the lake to the southeast you should see a decent waterfall coming down the slope into the lake (the JMT passes below it). Tracing the remainder of the northern shore, the JMT reaches the outlet and crosses it on a footbridge (~11.1 miles). Immediately after this, I turned left off of the JMT to follow the trail down toward the Middle Fork San Joaquin River. Make sure to look back at the footbridge and Banner Peak. This trail leads steeply down from Garnet Lake in a big crack in the granite. Snow can also linger here later into the summer. Just after passing into the trees, there is a place just off of the trail to view the main section of Garnet Lake Falls. Just past this is a side-trail that heads off to Altha Lake to the southeast (~11.4 miles). The trail continues to steeply descend toward the river to the northeast from here and reaches the river at ~11.8 miles. Here, I found no good way to cross the river in the immediate vicinity, so I followed a use-trail to the southeast. In retrospect, I may have found a decent crossing if I had headed upstream to where the Garnet Lake outlet meets the river. However, I'm not sure about it. Somewhere in this area there must be a decent place to cross, but perhaps not early in the season.

As a result of following this use-trail on the west side of the river, I quickly came to the first (~11.9 miles) of many waterfalls along the Middle Fork San Joaquin River (there are probably at least a couple more upstream of here too). Check out the waterfall description for more information. This first one is very interesting because the river crashes through and over several cracks in the rocks. Following the use-trail again, I quickly came upon the second (~12.0 miles), third (~12.1 miles, fourth (~12.1 miles), and fifth (~12.2 miles) waterfalls. In most places the use-trail closely follows the river, but the fifth waterfall requires a short off-trail jaunt to see it. After this, there was a relatively longer section of passing through the trees, jumping over a ton of fallen trees, and finding the trail numerous times after it disappeared. The trail especially liked to disappear in open areas or meadows. However, as long as you stay relatively close to the river, you'll eventually find it again. At one point (~12.8 miles), the trail comes up to the river during a calm spell and there is a nice view of San Joaquin Mountain and Two Teats (yes, really) to the east-northeast and east. Shortly after this, the sixth (~13.0 miles) and seventh (13.1 miles) waterfalls are reached. The use-trail then continues through the trees, an open space, and more trees before coming upon a slot-canyon section of the river. Here, high, steep walls surround the river and the eighth waterfall (~13.5 miles). I found a couple of precarious viewpoints above and downstream of the waterfall. This is the largest of the waterfalls I came across along the Middle Fork San Joaquin River. After this, the trail steeply climbs up and around a steep dropoff before climbing again for the last time before reaching the Shadow Lake Trail (~13.9 miles). The length of this use-trail on the west side of the river is not long (~2.1 miles), but it will be a lot slower going than a normal trail mostly because of the high concentration of fallen logs over the trail and the number of times it disappears. Therefore, if you're going to go this way, give yourself plenty of time. The Shadow Lake Trail will feel like a highway after the use-trail. Follow the maintained trail down to the footbridge at ~14.1 miles. Here, the river looks relatively placid and gives no indication of the numerous waterfalls that exist upstream. Pass through an exposed and hot section to reach the River Trail at ~14.2 miles in the trees. Turn right to proceed toward Agnew Meadows. Olaine Lake is reached at ~14.5 miles and the junction for Agnew Meadows is reached at ~15.2 miles. Turn left to begin the final climb. Along the climb are some decent views of Mammoth Mountain to the southeast. A side-trail leading down to the River Trail/PCT is reached at ~15.8 miles. Stay straight at this junction and another at ~15.9 miles leading east to the Agnew Meadows Campground. The trail then turns to the east, passes a small pond, and crosses over the outlet creek from the meadows at ~16.25 miles. The trail finishes by skirting the southern end of the meadows to the larger parking area first and then the smaller one and trailhead (~16.5 miles, ~16.9 miles total with side-trips).