Mt Warren
Notes by piero scaruffi | California hikes
Tioga PeakThis is a very short hike. Take the road to Saddlebag Lake (only partially paved) and, driving uphill, look for the Gardisky Lake trailhead parking on your left. The trail is across the road. The trail goes up rapidly to Gardisky Lake. Tioga Peak appears soon on the right before you reach the lake. You can leave the trail at any point when you see the spine leading to the top. It is an ugly and tedious scramble on loose rock, but no more than one hour. The views are rather limited. You basically see Mt Dana and Mt Conness, not much else. Nothing that compares with the views from Dana and Warren.Mt WarrenMt Warren (3757m) is the highest mountain east of Yosemite between Tioga Pass and Mono Lake, north of highway 120, in the Hoover Wilderness. The fastest way to the top is to take the Warren Fork trailhead (2700m) located on highway 120 about 2 kms east of Ellery Dam. The exact location is easily recognized by the sign "9000 Feet" (in 2010). You can park safely on the south side of the road (a large parking area that is in the national forest and therefore can also be used to sleep) and the trail is on the north side of the road.After about 45' of walking you reach a meadow where the trail often disappears. Leave the trail before the meadow and coast the swampy vegetation to the right entering the redwood forest. Proceed northeast in that forest until you reach another meadow. Head north and then northeast up very steep moraines of talus rock. See my pictures to identify the various turning points. At the top of the rocky chute you enter the summit plateau. The summit that you see is actually a false summit, but totally worth the climb: it has one of the best views of Yosemite. You should be able to make out all three highest points: Mt Dana (southeast), Mt Conness (west) and Mt Lyell (very distant to the southwest). From this false summit a gentle saddle connects to the real summit. Climb the long ridge to the top. There are a small building and an antenna at the top. The main attraction here is clearly the view of Mono Lake. The hike is relatively short (as the condor flies) but the elevation gain is about 1000 meters. If, instead of heading up the talus chutes, you continue across the meadow and head northeast (the lowest and rightmost point you can see from the meadow), you reach a "pass" that separates the Warren Creek drainage from the Oneida Lake region: at the top of the ridge two lakes are visible, and the lower one (and bigger one) is Oneida Lake. From this pass one can traverse east to the northern summit plateau of Mt Warren (keep to the left of the peak right east of the pass). From the plateau scramble to the top. See also Warren Canyon, Lundy Canyon See also Virginia and Hoover Lakes See also 20 Lakes Loop, Saddlebag Lake |
Maps for the Warren-Lundy loop
Maps for the Warren-Dore Pass-Lundy route
Where is Hoover Wilderness
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