I love off-trail hiking. The mental and physical challenges of picking a way through unmarked wild country are very satisfying, in spite of the fact that off-trail travel is often slower and almost always leaves marks in the form of abraded skin and gear.

And I love the Sierra Nevada of California, especially the high alpine country in the southern portion of the range from Yosemite National Park down to Mt. Whitney. In summertime the Sierra high country dazzles with sparkling lakes, high peaks, and brilliant white snowfields. Summer weather is generally good; in fact one might almost characterize it as arid. However, for a desert rat like me water is seemingly everywhere, the result of melt from huge winter snow packs.

Evening light in Lake Basin

It was with great interest in the mid 1980’s that I first read about the Sierra High Route, a mostly off-trail route that runs along the spine of the Sierra Nevada for 195 miles, most of its length spent above 10,000 feet, near or above timberline. Conceived by climber and historian Steve Roper, the route is detailed in his book, Sierra High Route: Traversing Timberline Country.

Over 20 years slipped by before I was able to get my act together to hike the Sierra High Route late this summer. I partnered up with my sister Brenda Baker (San Diego) for the trip. Unable to carve out enough time to walk the entire 195 miles, we decided to spend 8 or 9 days spanning late August and early September walking the southernmost portion of Roper’s cross country tour. This proved to be a great time to be out in the Sierra -- mosquitoes were absent, having politely retired for the season; and the high passes we crossed were mostly snow free, greatly simplifying travel through them.

Climbing above the Palisade Lakes

Brenda planned our eight and half day itinerary and applied for our wilderness permit. Rather than walk as far along the route in 8 days as we could, she created a more leisurely plan for a 54 mile trek from Kings Canyon, north to the South Lake trailhead outside the town of Bishop. This gave us time to make several side trips along the way, including ascents of two high peaks.

Using TOPO! software, and referring to Roper’s book, I marked our maps up with 40+ waypoints designating various lakes, passes, and other key landmarks along the route and printed them out for the trip. We decided not to carry the guide book with us, and though the maps provided enough information for relatively efficient navigation, we were left with plenty of enjoyable route finding puzzles to figure out on our own.

It’s hard not to gush about the Sierra High Route. The 50+ miles we walked are absolutely superb, yielding a feast of challenging hiking in awe inspiring wilderness landscapes. Roper’s route is exceptionally elegant; climbing, traversing, dipping and weaving through a stunning array of peaks, lakes, ridges, cirques and passes. I can hardly wait to return to walk the next 150 miles.

The Palisade crest from the top of Mt Agassiz (13,893’)

Additional notes:

Our entry point was the Copper Creek trailhead in Kings Canyon National Park, so we used the Wilderness Permits & Reservations page for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks on the NPS website to get permitting instructions.

The Sierra High Route passes through bear country. Learn more at sierrawildbear.gov. Find specific bear resistant food container requirements for various National Forests and Parks along the route here.

If you pass through Bishop, take time to visit the good folks at Wilson’s Eastside Sports, one the country’s nicest outdoor specialty stores.

About 5 million people a year visit Grand Canyon National Park, the vast majority of whom go to the Visitor’s Center, which overlooks the South Rim.

If you want to leave the crowds behind, look no further than the North Rim. A mere 10 miles to the north across the Colorado River, the North Rim is a 220-mile drive from the South Rim visitors' complex. With far fewer people, hotels, restaurants, gift shops and interpretive displays, the North Rim offers a distinctly different experience than the South.

Things get even quieter in the Grand Canyon’s backcountry. A rich network of spectacular and rough trails penetrates the vast wilderness that lies beneath the rim. The more popular of these are in the “Bright Angel Corridor”, with historic Phantom Ranch as the focal point.

Grand Canyon hikers who really want to get away from it all, dream about the huge expanse of country that can only be reached by leaving the trails behind, and striking out on cross-country routes. These trips are challenging, beautiful, fun, and totally engaging; but they are very serious too. Heat, scarce water, skin-shredding bush whacks, cliff bands, and very steep, rugged terrain are the main headliners.

Lowering Packs

This past October, I hooked up with Bob Wade (owner of Ute Mountaineer), James Wilson ( Wilson’s Eastside Sports), my sister Brenda Baker (San Diego), and two renowned Grand Canyon veterans, Jacek Macias (Chicago) and Jim Ohlman (Kayenta, AZ). Inspired by the classic guidebook, Hiking Grand Canyon Loops, by the late George Steck, we planned to walk the Crystal Creek – Phantom Creek loop, which leaves the North Rim near Tiyo Point. We walked 50 miles over 8 days on the trip, which works out to just a little over 6 miles a day. Not a great distance at all, but it took most of the day to cover these short distances due to the rugged terrain and difficult route finding.

Dropping off the North Rim, we followed an ancient route that has been used by people for thousands of years. At our first camp in Shiva Saddle, we found pottery shards and discarded flint flakes scattered about. For the rest of the trip, we continued to find other signs of the Ancients, including a small cliff ruin and several agave roasting pits.

The following two days were spent in Crystal Creek making our way toward the Colorado River. On one of these days, Bob, Jacek and Jim took time to complete the 5^th recorded ascent of the Tower of Ra, over 30 years after the first ascent back in the 1970’s. No mystery as to why this magnificent summit receives so few visitors, Ra is surprisingly remote and requires both technical climbing skills and keen route finding ability to gain its summit.

Colorado River at Ninety-Four Mile Rapid

Day four found us on the banks of the Colorado River twice; once early in the morning at the famed Crystal Rapid, and again at sunset on a lovely beach overlooking Ninety-Four Mile Rapid, some four and half miles up-river from Crystal. There was no route along the riverbank from Crystal to Ninety-Four. We scrambled a thousand feet up an imposing, steep slope to gain access to the Tonto Platform, which offered a parallel route high above the River. Late in the afternoon, we reached a point atop a 250 foot cliff with a view of our desired campsite far below on the beach at Ninety-Four Mile Creek. Though the escarpment was seemingly vertical, we used an amazing route down the cliff that linked short chimneys and hidden ledges to reach the bottom.

Two more days were spent trekking to Phantom Creek, a deep side canyon that is graced with a beautiful permanent stream. On the way to Phantom though, we had a “dry camp” in the parched upper reaches of Trinity Creek, which meant we had packs heavy with water as we climbed the steep ravine above Ninety-Four to reach the Tonto Platform. On the second day of the trek to Phantom Creek, Bob and Jacek bagged Cheops Pyramid, another of the famed Inner Canyon summits.

Under Cheops Pyramid

Our seventh day was far and away the shortest in distance – we only covered 2 miles! The route from our camp in Phantom Canyon back up to Shiva Saddle was complicated by having to climb through the Redwall cliff, easily the most imposing and intimidating of the great Grand Canyon rock formations. Bob led the way up two fourth class pitches which ended on a ledge half way up the cliff. A long traverse on the ledge (with over 400 feet of exposure!), gave access to a gulley which broke through the remainder of the Redwall. We reached Shiva Saddle early in the afternoon, and settled in for the coldest night of the trip under a snug sandstone overhang.

An eight-day trip is a pretty long one, but this one seemed to end too quickly. A final climb back up to the North Rim led to a peaceful walk through a deep pine and aspen forest, to our cars, and the return home.

Thinking about a backcountry trip in the Grand Canyon? You’ll need a permit: http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/backcountry-permit.htm