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ATWELL MILL TRAILHEAD

TRIP 4

East Fork Grove

DH

DISTANCE: 5 miles, out-and-back

ELEVATION: 6,600′/6,240′, +525′/-820′/±2,690′

SEASON: Late May to November

USE: Light

MAP: Silver City

INTRODUCTION: Most hikers and backpackers who endure the rigors of the drive on Mineral King Road are bound for the high country above the valley, overlooking some of the lesser-known treasures along the way. Some of these neglected riches are found along the Atwell-Hockett Trail, which leads to a picturesque river canyon and a nearly forgotten grove of giant sequoias. On this 5-mile hike, visitors will enjoy the turbulent East Fork Kaweah River, which cascades through a narrow cleft of granite and a fine selection of Big Trees sans crowds.

DIRECTIONS TO TRAILHEAD: From the east end of Three Rivers, leave Highway 198 and turn onto Mineral King Road. Follow the road for 8 miles to the Atwell Mill Campground entrance and then continue another 0.2 mile to the signed trailhead parking area, which has a bear box, at the east end of the campground.

DESCRIPTION: Walk down a road toward the campground, which has water and vault toilets, for about 250 yards to the beginning of the signed Atwell-Hockett Trail. Follow a path past redwood stumps to a small meadow filled with relics from the long-abandoned Atwell Mill.

Through a mixed forest of black oaks, white firs, sugar pines, ponderosa pines, incense cedars, and sequoias, you veer away from the old mill site and descend around a hillside, soon dropping to diminutive Deadwood Creek. The descent continues through forest another half mile to a stout steel-and-wood bridge spanning the granite cleft of East Fork Kaweah River, 1.25 miles from the parking area. The bridge offers a picture-postcard view of the cascading river plummeting over slabs and boulders down a narrow, sequoia-lined gorge.

ATWELL MILL

In the 1870s, the Atwell Mill provided the town of Buelah (now Mineral King) with lumber for buildings and mines, also supplying a million board feet for a flume between Oak Grove and a hydroelectric plant in Hammond. The high cost of transporting lumber to the San Joaquin Valley eventually doomed the mill, but not before many stately giant sequoias near the mill succumbed to the logger’s axe. Ironically, the brittle sequoia wood proved to be useful only for shakes and fence posts.

Cascade on East Fork Kaweah River

Beyond the bridge, proceed through the East Fork Grove on a mild to moderate climb away from the river to Deer Creek, a good turnaround point for dayhikers. From the creek, the Atwell-Hockett Trail continues to the unceremonious southern end of the East Fork Grove.