The photos in this section were taken on my backpacking trip in mid-September 2006.  I started at Twin Lakes near the tiny town of Bridegeport on Hwy 395 and hiked approximately 9 miles to Peeler Lake the first day.  On the second day I hiked to the foot of Seavey Pass and made base camp for 3 nights.  Due to the huge volume of snow we received during the winter of 2005 - 06, the creeks were still flowing nicely and there were wildflowers in the meadows above 9000'.  This is a very lightly used part of Yosemite especially compared to Tuolomne Meadows and Yosemite Valley.  The summer time trail quota assures that you won't see more than a couple of dozen people on any given day.  The last 3 days of my trip I saw a total of 3 people passing through.  Many people hike the complete loop around past Benson Lake, to Matterhorn Canyon, over Burro and Mule Passes, past Crown Lake and back down to the starting point at Twin Lakes.  It usually takes about 6 days to do the whole loop, 4 days if you're traveling light and in great shape.  Not wanting to break camp everyday, I found an excellent base camp and the following photos will attest to the beautiful scenery in the northeast corner of Yosemite National Park.

Please be patient while the pictures load, these are all high resolution, unedited photos that use a lot of memory.

Peeler Lake and Crown Point

Looking West across Peeler Lake

Looking South across Peeler Lake

Looking West across Peeler Lake the morning of Day 2.  Note how still the water is.  When I returned through here on Day 5 it was so windy the lake was covered with white caps and the spray was blowing off the tops of the waves.  I had to cling to the granite wall to avoid being blown off a 30' cliff and into Peeler Lake on the hike back to Twin Lakes.