Cottonwood Lakes, Lone Pine, CA - Horseshoe Meadows - Cottonwood Lakes Trail - New Army Pass - Old

Описание: Located close to the town of Lone Pine CA, the Cottonwood Lakes Basin has a number of pristine alpine lakes and creeks located between Mount Langley and Cirque Peak. I decided to take my dog Iris on a solo backpacking trip and explore the lakes. It was great to get out of the city and explore another trail that’s been on my backpacking list for a while.

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Your car definitely does most of the elevation gain for you on this one. Climbing up on Horseshoe Meadow Road from 3,727 ft to over 10,000 ft to the trailhead. This footage is from the way out of the trail but I ended up driving up the night before my hike to acclimate to the altitude. That is something that I recommend everyone does. You also get to be the first one on the trail. I did find that the parking lot was very packed even at night. There’s one overflow parking lot just back up the road from the trailhead.

There's a number of campgrounds here at the start of the trail. One of which is Horseshoe Meadow which is an Equestrian Campground for those horse campers. In a bit, I’ll tell you where you can hire horses to go horse camping a bit later. There’s also a 12 tent walk-in campground that is self-service right next to the parking lot. At the trailhead, there are pit toilets and bear bins so that you can store your extra food.

It was early and Iris and I were eager to get on the trail. This is an extremely well-trafficked trial with plenty of signage. It starts with a gradual elevation gain and then you reach the Golden Trout Wilderness border. As the sign suggests there is plenty of California's state fish, the golden trout in the cottonwood lakes. More on that later in the video.

You’ll get some nice views to the left of Trail Peak. You can hike to the top of Trail Peak from the Cottonwood Pass Trailhead, close to where you parked.

After that, you start descending a few hounded feet dipping below 10,000 ft. Hope you enjoy this gradual slope because you’ll feel it at the end of your hike. When you make it here you run into the South Fork of the Cottonwood Creek. A good place to fill up your bottles.

It was around here that Iris started getting a little tired. I know, I know why in the world did I bring a little white dog on a backpacking trip. And why do you even have a little white dog… Well, the reality is that she’s a champ and always down for anything but she overheats and needs more breaks then I like to take. I live in Los Angeles in a small place which is only really conducive for small dogs. I’m a weekend warrior gang and this is the face of a city weekend warrior dog.

In the comments, I’ve pinned a comment “small dog vs no dog” hit that thumbs up or thumbs down if you agree or disagree.

Now that we’re over that. We get a glimpse of one of many cottonwood meadows. On the other side of that, you can spot the Golden Trout Campground. Soon after you’ll cross into the John Muir Wilderness. Then back across the cottonwood creek.

From here we start really climbing. It’s about a 1,000 ft climb up to the lakes. Which is a breeze at sea level but at 10 or 11 thousand feet not a stroll in the park. A lot of people like to do this trail as training for Mt Whitney as it gets you up to altitude fast. In a future video, I’ll share my favorite backpacking trips in the Eastern Sierras.

A little while up the trail you get to a sign that points you up to cottonwood lakes or new army trail. I’d suggest that you completely ignore the sign and hike up to the New Army Pass. This leads you up to first see cottonwood lakes 1 and 2 up close and then you can head over to see lakes 3, 4, and 5. But more on that later.

As you climb this part of the hike is the hardest but it has a wonderful payoff as you start to see Cottonwood Lake 1. This lake is out in the open with some trees to the left of the trail. I saw a few people camping here basically camping at the first available spot. I recommend you keep going.

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