Hiking Rae Lakes Loop, Backpacking & Camping Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park

Alright so I'm in onion Valley. I was invited on a trip by Matt and Chuck and they invited me to come along and do the Rae Lakes loop, so I'm gonna join them for four maybe five days and see how far I can get on those four days. My first time hiking with Chuck and Matt very grateful that they invited me, let's have some fun. Looking back down at the onion valley trailhead here, we're heading up towards the first few lakes to make a camp. Independence should be way out there in the valley somewhere. it's amazing There's the man right there cheers buddy cheers everybody man yes wait thank you sir let's open this here's to friends cheers! That's just about right. Look at this deer here This is the view from camp as the Sun is setting over the Owens Valley and the desert beyond that. Good morning Chuck. Good morning Jarl. So what time did you get up today. We got about 5 o'clock 5 a.m. 5 a.m. yes. I heard something rumbling around my tent and I thought it was a bear. Well I was taking care of that, yeah there were bears out here this morning when we first got out, but that's why I'm usually the first one to get up take care all that so when you guys get up you can just leisurely have your coffee and go about your day so yeah. That's awesome so what's the plan for today? Well the plan for today so so actually we came in about half of our halfway up the pass, we did 2.5 miles just to get to I think we're at Gilbert Lake, and we've got about another two point something to get up over Kersarge pass. Probably hang out there for a minute and then we're gonna head down to Charlotte Lake so we're better, we've got an easy day which is why i'm sitting here enjoying the coffee so we've got an easy, probably under six miles. I think it's two point four to the junction and another 1.5 from there to the lake, so that's what our day looks like, see how it goes. Awesome thank you! Yes sir! All right we have started day two. Looking out over Gilbert Lake here, we camped right down here on the other bank. Here comes Matt to the beautiful backdrop stunning mountains Here comes Chuck the mauler and Matt the hauler Here's Heart Lake. So here we are looking at the pass. Coming up on Kersarge pass here now. or if you look up the corsage pinnacles you don't see any of those mountains behind we saw no pass here's bullfrog Lake beautiful lake and a beautiful surrounding so pretty bullfrog Lake so up here we can actually see Forester pass I believe it should be way back here maybe this one where you see the receipt of snow so we have reached where we looking to camp it's pretty here this is this right in front of our camp spot all right we found camp and we're just chilling here these are my legs these are Matt's legs over there it's a trucks legs yeah yeah yep are you feeling about today Matt pretty good about today I think you did pretty good upcoming camp this morning and then straight forward beautiful yep good day awesome hiking down past past that bullfrog leg there so Chuck and Matt are getting water here's our camp overlooking this beautiful meadow all right it's dinner time here's my dinner spot over here truck is set up over here what are you making truck well first we're having a beer the up of compliments of yarrow I think tonight I randomly pulled out mashed potatoes and the lasagna awesome sounds good and then we have Matt down here hiding from the wind yep trying what are you making ramen noodle tonight oh and I'll mix it a little bit of mashed potato picking it up a little bit that's called a ramen bomb business something like that yeah throw a little crispy onion strips down there so kind of excited about tonight's dinner sounds amazing I've never had it before so we'll find out a little bit good awesome so that's our work through dinner camp it's day three and we have a visitor in camp not very shy smelling that salt he wants a cup of coffee yeah probably hello there so he came back right and camp we have started climbing towards Glen pass and Ray Lakes is supposed to be four miles ahead of us as Charlotte Lake down here are the Meadows that we camp that great heading towards Glenn pass some pretty epic [ __ ] here's Charlotte don't you think you're sought out from the other side mounts element two weeks ago now I know where it's at so up there in the knotch is Glenn pass where are we heading take a water break here I'm approached now to pass yeah so this is the rail Lakes based beautiful and start heading down towards Rey Lakes so we made it off the pass snow snow hairnets now we're just gonna head down to real lakes is standing up here pass behind me there so here's where we came down up there's the pass you just came down this beautiful look at this great trail here it's like someone's living room so we have reached Rey Lakes yep so we have kind of a perfect lunch spot here with beautiful use everywhere we might not want to leave this place if somebody's looking for us let them know we're between the two top rail Lakes so this is Arrowhead Lake really pretty this is where we are planning to set up camp for night somewhere this is a round camp Arrowhead Lake these are mountains right above us and we're setting up camp over here so this is where we're cooking our food today right by the lake so the Sun is setting it's 7:15 it's gonna be a cold night beautiful morning there's ice on top of my bear canister this morning was pretty cold night here's the view where I start beautiful beautiful cold morning at Arrowhead Lake so it's day 4 I'm leaving Matt and chuck behind I need to be out in two days now so I'm gonna try to do two big days and complete loop going from Arrowhead Lakes to probably somewhere past Springs today for everything works out and then out tomorrow so it's gonna be a long day today and a long and hard day tomorrow with a lot of elevation gain so but it should be beautiful here we go Dollar Lake these views here are amazing hey there beauty yeah you're a pretty one doesn't care if I'm here so pretty do you have a name I'll call you the king of the forest what an amazing place I have reached the suspension bridge over woods Creek this should be fun it's shaky this is what's Creek pretty cool okay so apparently I have to go fifteen point one miles to roads and and then I have to go a couple of miles more from there should make it 20 to 23 miles something okay just have to go heading down the Woods Creek drainage towards Paradise Valley hello hater look at you yeah good get that food he's looking back up woods woodcreek this is looking down into Paradise Valley should be reaching Paradise Valley pretty soon now we've gone across arrow Creek here this looks like the spot to do it put on my cap shoes for this it's cold old Harry called it's not very deep stuff like ankle chin deep what looks like somebody put the carne up there so it's probably the best way this is pretty decent right here so I'm gonna keep going here it's gonna get little bit deeper probably me hi here not still only shindy so this is the deepest part this is going to get knee-high I guess here yep we got it Paradise Valley this place really is something I think I'm right about miss Falls and see some people way down there pretty cool here's something that looks like a rattlesnake I have reached Bob's Creek finally after eighteen and a half miles and a lot of downhill so now I'm gonna head up over swings and see if I can find the camp that would put me in a good position to make it over corsage past tomorrow that's gotta be the swings up there pretty sure on top looking out towards road sand looks like there's a thunderstorm coming in over Paradise Valley could get some rain soon so I come a little over 20 miles started climbing up along Bucks Creek to finally end up at corsage past and onion Valley tomorrow hopefully I have reached swings Creek and this was my goal for today I've done 21 miles it's about 5:30 p.m. now I'm gonna keep going for as long as I think I have strength to go just to shorten this 8.9 up to the death meadow so here we go found a pretty good camp here after a long day nearly 25 miles today pretty exhausted so probably gonna sleep well first some food it is day 5 and here's Charlotte dome that I can't write below it's the last day I'm gonna keep heading up along Bub's Creek here then go up to bullfrog Lake and over Chris arch pass to make this the end of my absolutely magnificent trip can't stay here going go away go away good boy yeah I still he's just hanging out behind here you have to go away bear those people here yeah you want to go away yeah just go keep going go away the other way go away go great Hey okay turn turn off go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away don't come here don't come here you want to come over here make you sit hey stop go away go away go right well he's right here behind the edge here so how do you like yourself tall like right yeah keep them up yes they tom party's coming huh so that was an exciting morning the reason why did we didn't back off from that bear was that there was a woman packing her stuff and she was right there so if we had started backing up the bear would have gone over to her so we had to stand our ground and make sure that she could pack her stuff before we started backing up luckily the bear run away and we made some loud noises and made our self as tall as possible good extra hiking stakes and up in the air screaming and yelling honey you took off well here's another one right next to the trail or the same one and you circled us Junction meadow here pretty awesome just climbing out from junction meadow getting some great views looking out at bubs Creek up towards first or pass in the middle and there's caresearch pass above bullfrog Lake to the left up there final approach to corsage pass she's right over there that's it four miles back to the car now

Channel: Norwegian Xplorer

Views: 350,483

Keywords: rae lakes, kings canyon national park, rae lakes loop, glen pass, kersarge pass, bullfrog lake, arrowhead lake, paradise valley, mist falls, bear encounter, bluff charge, bear standoff, sierra nevada, roads end, jmt, pct, john muir trail, onion valley, backpacking, hiking, lone pine, john muir wilderness, bubbs creek, sequoia national park, sequoia, california, bear safety, 2022, sequoia 2022, camping, camping with bears, solo camping, best hikes in america

Id: u4xR_MkCCwo

Length: 65min 18sec (3918 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 09 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Melantopia]

I was invited by my new friends Chuck and Matt to come along and do the Rae Lakes loop in Sequoia Kings Canyon 10 days ago, here is my video from one of the most stunning areas I have backpacked in, with an abundance of wildlife and amazing lakes and views everywhere. Enjoy!

[u/jocala]

Was just up in King’s Canyon area for 3 day backpack and it was amazing. Incredible weather.

[u/traveling_clouds]

Looks way better than when I went! How were the mosquitos?

[u/ya_machinu]

Great video, thanks for sharing. My brothers and I are doing the loop from road’s end in early September. I love SEKI, we spend time there every year, but this will be my first time backpacking there, cannot wait!

[u/wizardofmarsh]

Do you have the map of your trip? Heading there in September to do the loop and your video looked just amazing!

[u/actuallyarobot]

What were the dates of the trip? And what were the nighttime temps while you were there?

I want to do this loop next year in June and am wondering what the conditions were like. I did the full JMT in July, 2015 and this was my favorite section.