Eldorado National Forest, California
Friday, 16 Jul 2021. 10pm.

After hiking to the fire lookout atop Bunker Hill- the one at over 7,500' in Eldorado National Forest, not the one in Boston- we drove across the Crystal Basin area to the vicinity of Wrights Lake.
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Eldorado National Forest, California
Friday, 16 Jul 2021. 6:30pm.

Our plan for today has been to hike another trail or two in the Crystal basin after hiking Bassi Falls then camp for the night nearer to Wright's Lake to hike into the Desolation Wilderness tomorrow. Our visit to Bassi falls took longer than expected- a few hours and 3 blogs. Our next ( Read more... )

Eldorado National Forest, California
Friday, 16 Jul 2021. 3:30pm.

For as short a hike as Bassi Falls is I'm partly surprised my blogging about our visit this year has stretched to 3 entries. I'm also partly not surprised because for such a short hike Bassi is pretty darn epic. During our first visit in 2017 we caught "granite fever" here. Well, this ( Read more... )

Eldorado National Forest, California
Friday, 16 Jul 2021. 3pm.

When we visit Bassi Falls we try to spend some time above the falls as well as below it. In my previous blog I shared notes and pictures from below the falls... and, well, partly up it, which I was able to climb this time because the water flow is so low in this record-setting drought ( Read more... )

Eldorado National Forest, California
Friday, 16 Jul 2021. 2pm.

This morning we checked out from our hotel in Folsom, California (previous blog) and drove up US 50 into the Sierra Nevada mountains. Along the way we stopped for gas, groceries, and a ranger station- the latter two to prepare for camping tonight- but our first real stop was our main ( Read more... )

Saturday, 2 June 2018, 11:45pm.

Whew, it's been quite a trip. We arrived home from our trip to the Crystal Basin in the Sierras, where we visited Robb's Peak, Loon Lake, and Bassi Falls, at 11 tonight. That's just a smidge over 28 hours after we left home last night. Doing the Friday Night Halfway thing in Rancho Cordova helped. If we'd tried to ( Read more... )

Saturday, 2 June 2018, 6:30pm.

Aside from a small camera mishap we had a good hike to Bassi Falls. Yes, we were here just less than a year ago, too. To make our second visit a bit different we started at a different trailhead. Last year we opted for the shortest route, which actually started out higher than the falls and off to the side of the ( Read more... )

Saturday, 2 June 2018, 4pm.This afternoon we finally began hiking the trail to Bassi Lake, the centerpiece of our trip up to the Eldorado National Forest today, and I dropped my camera. I actually drop my camera occasionally. From waist height it's rarely a big deal. But once in a great while something goes badly wrong. Like about three years ago, ( Read more... )

Saturday, 2 June 2018, 1:30pm.

After we finished hiking Robb's Peak (previous entry) in the Crystal Basin of Eldorado National Forest we drove over to Loon Lake. We were immediately taken aback by how big it is, how blue it is, and how quiet it is. Gazing across from the foot of the lake we counted only two cars passing by over the course of about ( Read more... )

Saturday, 2 June 2018, 1:30pm.

First of all, yes, we decided to return to Bassi Falls and the Crystal Basin today. Exactly where'd we go today was up in the air until we sat down at breakfast after leaving our overnight stop at Rancho Cordova. But we're not going to Bassi Falls right away.... There are other things to see & do in the Crystal Basin ( Read more... )