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Deer Creek Trailhead 7240´; 11S 307375 4125871

Information and Permits: This trailhead is in Sierra National Forest: 1600 Tollhouse Road, Clovis, CA 93611, 559-297-0706, www.fs.fed.us/r5/sierra/. Permits are required for overnight stays, and quotas apply; reserved permits and on-demand permits are available.

Driving Directions: From Clovis (near Fresno), take State Hwy. 168 northeast for 42 winding, slow miles to its end at a T junction on the east shore of Huntington Lake at the community of Lakeshore. Turn left (west) on Huntington Lake Road and, in 0.9 mile, turn right at the posted turnoff for the D&F Pack Station (just before the entrance to Deer Creek Campground). Turn right on Upper Deer Creek Lane after 0.1 mile and right again onto Deer Lane after another half mile. Park in the small dirt lot before the road horseshoes over the creek and enters the pack station. This trailhead for Kaiser Wilderness is at the north end of the pack station’s customer parking lot.

13 Nellie Lake

Trip Data: 11S 300888 4128413; 21 miles; 2/0 days

Topos: Kaiser Peak

Highlights: This demanding trip’s highlight is the ascent of Kaiser Peak, with its spectacular views that encompass the central Sierra Nevada and the San Joaquin River’s watershed. Note the shuttle alternative for Day 2.

HEADS UP! For an easier trip, take this trip in reverse. Whichever way you go, take plenty of water, for long stretches of this strenuous trip are usually dry (watercourses are seasonal). The rugged terrain means that mapped lakes are often impossible to reach, so campsites are almost nonexistent unless you are prepared to dry camp. Nellie Lake is the exception.

DAY 1 (Deer Creek Trailhead to Nellie Lake, 11 miles): From the trailhead, two trails diverge. Your route turns left (northeast) toward Kaiser Peak and reaches another junction in 100 yards, where you continue straight ahead (northeast). Ascending under mature and fragrant Jeffrey pines, the trail narrows and steadily rises 400 feet in the first half mile to meet Deer Creek on the right. Paralleling the creek, the trail begins a long series of switchbacks ascending to College Rock. After a steep 2.5 miles, College Rock (9055´) is an ideal resting spot.

THE VIEWS FROM COLLEGE ROCK

College Rock can be reached with a little scrambling that’s rewarded by encompassing views of the Huntington Lake basin. To the southwest, views reach into the Central Valley, and, on an exceptionally clear day, the silhouette of the Coast Range often appears more than 100 miles along the western horizon.

Continuing, the path narrows and continues its switchbacking ascent a half mile farther before leading to a broad meadow where wildflowers abound in season, including lupine, Indian paintbrush, and hound’s tongue. The path meanders toward and away from seasonal Bear Creek, through lodgepole and western white pine as it ascends a massive granite crest (9800´). Past a false summit, the tread reaches a gap; Kaiser Peak is visible as the trail descends from the gap. Jewel Lake (larger) and Campfire Lake (smaller and farther away) can be seen nearly 400 feet below to the northeast.

Gain Kaiser Peak’s summit by taking a short, signed spur trail (10,250´) on the right that leads northward a short distance.

VIEWS FROM KAISER PEAK

Atop lone Kaiser Peak (10,310´), a western spur of the Sierra ridge, ambitious hikers get outstanding views of the central Sierra, whose highest peaks bound the San Joaquin River. Gaze around you at this great river’s watershed. In the north, the serrated Minarets of the Ritter Range rim North Fork San Joaquin River, while Middle Fork San Joaquin wraps east below Mammoth Crest, and South Fork San Joaquin drains the distant, barren, granite peaks visible along the east-southeast skyline. From here, the San Joaquin continues to flow west to the trough of the Central Valley, where it joins California’s other great rivers and is either diverted for agriculture, power, and people, or follows its historical route north to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and then out through San Francisco Bay.

Retrace your steps down the spur trail to the junction and turn right (west) along Kaiser Ridge. Immediately below and north of the sheer granite ledge is Bonnie Lake, while the small twin disks of Bobby Lake lie northward nearly 1000 feet below.

Jewel Lake (larger) and Campfire Lake (smaller) lie nearly 400 feet below Kaiser Ridge.

Continuing, the trail traverses west through moonscape terrain devoid of obvious plant life except the occasional gnarled whitebark pine. Diminutive and barren Line Creek Lake is nestled along the exposed southern slopes. The trail descends slowly along Kaiser Ridge, offering expansive views north that include Balloon Dome—a prominent, granite knob jutting nearly 3000 feet above the banks of the San Joaquin River, which carves its way through Ansel Adams Wilderness.

Initially heading west, the trail gently leads downslope along the exposed, sun-drenched ridge and bends south-southeast to meet a junction 3 miles from the summit (8780´). Curve west across the headwaters of Line Creek, and, in 0.9 mile, reach a junction with the Nellie Lake Trail (8430´).

Turn right (west) onto the Nellie Lake Trail; Nellie Lake is the only site for established camps along the entire 21-mile loop. The path initially climbs 500 feet, crossing upper Home Camp Creek in 0.4 mile. It then skirts the northern flanks of Peak 9198 and drops the remaining half mile into the Nellie Lake basin. To find the best campsites, from Nellie Lake’s east shore (8900´; 11S 300888 4128413), follow a use trail right 200 feet across the inlet, through a shoreline forest of mature lodgepole, red fir, and the occasional western white pine and droopy-topped mountain hemlock.

Nellie Lake is the only site for established camps along this loop.

DAY 2 (Nellie Lake to Deer Creek Trailhead, 10 miles): From Nellie Lake, retrace your steps eastward to the Kaiser Loop Trail. Turn right (south) to descend under dense stands of red fir and lodgepole. The trail briefly parallels Home Camp Creek’s western branch before veering southeast below Peak 8403.

Continuing, the trail descends a viewless stretch into the Billy Creek drainage and reaches a junction where an eastbound trail joins the Kaiser Loop Trail (7270´).

SHUTTLE ALTERNATIVE

If you have two cars, a possible alternative to the 21-mile loop trek is to leave one car at the Deer Creek Trailhead and the other at the Upper Billy Creek Trailhead, 150 feet south of the junction with the eastbound trail and the Kaiser Loop Trail (7230´; 11S 302413 4124099). In doing so, it will bypass the next 4.5 miles, turning this loop into a 16.5-mile shuttle.

Turn left and head east along the Kaiser Loop Trail, traversing the densely forested slopes above Huntington Lake. Look for the red cones of snow plant, a saprophyte that obtains its nutrients from forest litter instead of through photosynthesis; it protrudes from the dense layer of downed debris on the forest floor. Farther east, the forest changes from dark, shady fir stands to more open Jeffrey pine stands that allow views southward across Huntington Lake and into Dinkey Lakes Wilderness.

The route undulates across the lush, steep canyon of Line Creek (7630´) and then, in 1.4 more miles, across Bear Creek (7300´), to arrive in another 0.8 mile at the Deer Creek Trailhead.