On our second day, we hiked up to the Cottonwood Lakes area. This area is in the John Muir Wilderness, one of the first officially designated wildernesses in 1964.
It was a welcome sight to see water along the trail...waterfalls coming out of rocky areas, streams to cross and finally, lakes...
This is the first lake we encountered.
In the meadow surrounding this lake, we saw this incredibly cute Yellow-bellied Marmot. He was enjoying his lunch in the rocky meadow full of places to hide when he feels threatened. Fortunately, I wasn't a threat to him.
Around the corner was another lake...
The South Fork lake was the last one we passed before heading back down the mountain. Again, we realized that if we backpacked up here, we could enjoy the beauty and peacefulness of this place longer.On day 2, we hiked about 12 miles. We were pretty exhausted by the time we reached our tents but quite happy with the experience that we shared.
All weekend trips go past quite quickly. I was tempted to stop and ask the owner of the small cattle ranch what it was like to live at the foot of these majestic mountains...I can imagine what he would say.
